Doctors That Overbook
 

What is so freaking special about doctors that they are allowed to get away with overbooking and making us wait an hour or longer. Then they hustle you into another room to wait even longer. I challenged the receptionist, then the nurse then the doctor after waiting 45 minutes yesterday. The receptionist said my chart was mixed up and she was sorry. This was after I heard her tell someone on the phone that the doctor was not in the office yet. The nurse said they were running slow (I had a 9:15 appointment and they open at 9. The doctor said he was sorry and that his staff double booked. I guess we have to live with it.

I just take a book or save the newspaper. I try not to **** off people who write my prescriptions. I have one doctor that is always an hour late and another doctor who is on time and I was five minutes late and got a lecture. Doctors were almost always close to the appointment time back in good ole Cincinnati. sigh.

Perhaps they were double booked because a patient had an emergency....being late to work? Well I guess that's his bad.

I have had 2 appointments with Dr. Ballingit and have walked out on both times because I was kept waiting for 1/2 hour, now I have to find a new doctor.
It wouldn't be quite so annoying if the staff kept the patients informed as to what was going on, a simple "Doctor is running about an hour late" would solve a lot of problems, one could leave an them come back rather than be left uninformed in a consulting room.

In a medical office the scarce resource that has to be managed is physician's time. If it comes down to the physician or the patient waiting; well, the patient loses. Given the shortage of physicians, this is just an issue of supply and demand. Airlines and hotels overbook all of the time. Same reasoning.

You might be willing to justify and accept bad behavior by medical offices but I am not. It is rude and unprofessional and the only reason an office gets away with it is because patients roll over and let them. I will allow that emergencies happen but that is not what we are talking about. Class operations, such as the Mayo Clinic (where I have been more than once), do not keep patients waiting because they do not overbook. My limit is 20 mins and then I will leave. My last Dr. didn't keep me waiting, ever. We will see how it plays out here in The Villages but my one visit so far (to meet the Dr.) was on time. My two dental visits so far have been on time. If you want to put medical offices up on a pedestal and let them waste your time that is your business but please don't suggest that it is normal or acceptable behavior for the rest of us because it isn't. By the way, airlines and hotels do not overbook "all the time". In fact, overbooking by airlines is now a relatively rare event, which is actually too bad as I enjoyed volunteering in the past for a free ticket. Regarding hotels, I have only seen it once in the 20 years when I traveled frequently for business.

I have mostly accepted the fact that I will have to wait in a doctor's office.The reason or reasons for the wait is beyond my control. I too bring a good book and 'go with the flow' as much as I can. I try to never schedule two medical appointments for the same day lest I get crazy with time elements.

I do get antsy when I cannot read due to inane and annoying day time television shows blaring away in the doctor's office with hair trigger and senseless prolonged clapping and standing ovations at the drop of a hat. That's when long waiting becomes torturous.

My thoughts exactly. An occasional wait is tolerable, but if I knew I had to take a book and read for an hour, I would find another doctor. My current doctor and dentist do not overbook. My dentist, Dr. Novak at Bushnell Family Dentistry, is extremely punctual, as are the hygienists there. Add a very nice staff into that mix, and it's a model office that doesn't treat its customers like cattle.

I have only once waited longer than 20 minutes for my family doctor, who then apologized profusely.

We also go to Bushnell Dentistry and I could not agree with you more - very nice practice and it gets my wife's stamp of approval - she is a retired dental hygienist.

This is not to condone doctors who make wait more than 15-20 minutes. I don't like it either. Our time has value, too.

But if you want the current shortage of primary care, private-practice, self-employed doctors to get a whole lot worse, just keep insulting their efforts and sacrifice of personal/family life by comparing their practice to research hospitals like Mayo, which has over 2,000 residents in training to take care of the emergencies of your doctor's patients there.

I do NOT think a 3-12 hour drive to research-teaching hospitals like Mayo--for primary care or even common specialist visits--is the answer to saving patients time in getting routine medical care.

Mayo Clinic - MN Campus
2012 Statistics

Staff physicians and scientists: 2,158

Residents, fellows and students: 2,899

Allied health staff (clinic and hospital): 29,166

Total: 34,223


Facts about Mayo Clinic in Minnesota - About Us - Mayo Clinic

I agree, if everyone cancelled their appointment after waiting 15 or 20 minutes, the doctors would soon realise this is not acceptable behaviour, it would also result in less revenue for the practice that should make them sit up and take notice. My family doctor explained to me that if you have an appointment at 2 o'clock she would not be considered late until after 2.15, the first 15 minutes is for the nurse to do weight, blood pressure etc.

I've had really good luck with short or no waits at tThe Villages Care Center-Colony.

I think the doctor wants to keep us all together in a small room so we can all get each other illness and he makes more money.

On another note, I heard a good idea to control Ebola. Send all the affected people to Vegas because what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

I have great respect for the doctors that care for me. I can be impatient but when it comes to issues such as this I remember that my docs give will give me the required time I need just as they had the previous patient. Those that want fast forget that thee are many competing vices for a doctor's attention. I would not want my doc tor rush me and miss something

I am not insulting anybody - not sure where you got that from - reread my post. I am objecting to any office that books appointments under the assumption that patients have nothing better to do then wait. As I indicated, I understand that emergencies can happen. My point is there are practices that don't routinely waste patient's time. If people stopped accepting bad behavior perhaps it would become less common. My visits to Mayo (in Jacksonville, not Minnesota, which is about 2+ hours away) were for an orthopedic problem and there were two issues that drove me there: waiting beyond my scheduled appointment time at two sports medicine practices and their inability to diagnose and repair the problem. Neither of these issues existed at Mayo. This was when I lived closer to Mayo. I also know people who go there for what many might consider routine stuff because of the way the place is run (i.e. patient scheduling) and that really has nothing to do with how many people work there. The orthopedic guy saw me on time (for multiple consult, and pre- and post-op visits) because they schedule enough time for each appointment. The nature of the operation at the Mayo is such that they need to do this because often a patient will have multiple appointments in a single day and chaos would break out if each appointment was not taken on time.