Let’s say your appointment time to see or speak to your family physician or specialist doctor is at a specific time, but you often don’t get to see him/her until much later than the scheduled time. Maybe upwards of an hour or two. This means this doctor actually listens and cares about their patients. They don’t just rush them out the door once their 10-15 minutes is up. They listen to all of their health issues and address them. If that takes more time, then it takes more time. Have patience and they will also have patience with you.
But if this particular doctor has a very rigid schedule, and only sees people at very specific times, then.. well yeah, sure – you won’t have to wait to see them, but you’ll probably just be rushed out of the door just like everyone else was.
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A two hour delay seems ridiculous. They have a schedule for a reason, they need to account for extra time.
No, this means your doctor has poor time management. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’d think that I’d a doctor knows they spend an average of an hour seeing each patient, they’d space their appointments out accordingly…
People have commitments and can’t afford to wait an “extra hour or two”. It’s the doctors job to be able to listen and evaluate their patients issues within the allotted time. That’s what makes a doctor good, not them spending ridiculous amounts of time with each patient. What an asinine take. Upvoted
Nah it means they overbook and most likely you’ll get a very rushed low quality visit
10 -15 minutes is fine. Waiting 2 hours is just taking the piss.
My doctor was 4 hrs late, when it was my time they said she wasn’t there and another doctor saw me.
Being a doctor is a job that can be done efficiently and well. Look up the ford of heart surgery.
Profesor: why you’re always late?
Me: I listen bruh…I listen to Reddit
This is a bit of an oversimplification, I think. A doctor could just be over-scheduled.
If it happens once in a while, I agree with you that it is probably a good sign that the doctor is listening. If it happens all the time, I think that’s more of a scheduling issue.
Also, since many people see their doctors on M-F and work similar hours, it’s more than ‘just have patience.’ It’s additional time off. If I knew my doctor would be 1-2 hours late, I’d leave my house later instead of just twiddling my thumbs in the waiting room.
And, of course, these are generalizations. Some doctors can just be terrible at time management (besides the over-scheduling issue).
This is an extremely L take.
Mine is late when I am the first appointment of the day. I think he has serious organization issues
My doctor had me wait just over 2 hours. And I had to wait because she’s a specialist. Otherwise the next appointment would have been weeks down the road. Previously it was 30 minutes, maybe 45. After the 2 hour wait I would make my appointments so I was first to be seen.. 8am? Cool, I’ll be here.
I think the issue is patients being late, it messes up the schedule for the whole day. That’s why I schedule 8am appointments lol.
I kind of agree with you. Everybody here commenting about scheduling and time management doesn’t understand that in the US of A big corporate daddy packs your schedule to the breaking point whether you fucking like it or not. Rarely is that a decision made by the doctor unless they own the practice. 2 hours is insane though
I think you under estimate how long doctors have to chart for. Them making you wait most of the time does not mean they are taking their time with each patient. It means they are over booked and are slow at charting lol
It doesn’t, it means they book way too many people in.
If they’re ten minutes late a few times, sure. But there is no excuse for being two hours late.
Ah….that’s not always how that goes. There are a ton of reasons why a doctor has fallen behind, a lot of which involves phone calls with non patients.
wrong. it shows the doctors dont respect their patients. id rather they be stricter about it. it would force people to do better at communicating.
Not true. Had a doctor’s office that would regularly make me wait 30min to an hour sometimes more. Then they’d ignore everything I said and treat me like a lab rat. If your doctor is late don’t cut them slack. They made a commitment to be there at X time.
Youuuu clearly don’t understand how medical clinics make money lol. Legit an unpopular opinion, but because you’re misinformed. Clinics make more money by OVER-BOOKING the schedule. You’re waiting for hours because they’re booking double the amount of patients instead of in 10-20 min time slots. Waiting up to half an hour, ok, that’s fine. But more than that is just careless disregard for the time of patients and moneymaking on the part of the clinic. You can tell when it’s overbooking or not by the waiting room.
Yeah bullshit lmao. Everyone else is expected to show up on time for appointments, doctors can do the same.
If your doctor is always late, their office is failing time management and it gives me concern about the rest of their organizational skills.
That time I intentionally asked for the first appointment of the day because the wait was crazy and he was still a half hour late 😂
2 hours of waiting anywhere but the ER or Urgent Care is ridiculous.
I need a doctors take on this. What gets in the way most of the time guys? Short staffing? Over booking? Processing and paperwork? I know some of you are here
Every time I have been forced to wait for 2 hoirs, my appointment was still 15 minutes.
I work as a forensic psychiatric case manager, so I don’t work with the average doctor, but I would still like to share. The worst doctor I work with is the most consistently late. I have attended my clients’ appointments with him and he spends less than than 10 minutes with each (rarely sufficient for a forensic client in my opinion). He almost exclusively asks the same few questions, never diving deeper into any concerns the client has. He is also antagonist towards them and lacks any empathy. He does not take any other staffs’ thoughts into consideration. He can almost never be reached to discuss a case further or in more depth.
The best doctor I work has only been late once over the course of several years. She has so much compassion, patience and empty for all her clients. She purposely books more time between her clients so that if an appointment runs late she will have enough time before the next appointment. She is collaborative with the supporting staff, client and any family members. I wish all of my clients could have a doctor like her.
my doctor spends 30-45 minutes with a patient and i’ve never waited to see them. actually, i’ve always been called back 10-15 minutes early, and they’ve been in 5-10 minutes later. 🤷🏻♀️
I used to have a very good doctor like this, Doctor Daley (now retired). I always booked first appointment of the day because by 10 am she’d be 30 min behind. We secretly called her Doctor Delay
My doctor always is late and that is why. He spends a long time talking with me and others I have heard
Lots of good explanations here of why doctors are actually late,but of course there’s one more that I didn’t see anyone mention…sometimes the golf game just runs long😀
Doctors are over scheduled and patients show up late. It delays the whole thing.
PSA. Arrive early.
I used to see a doctor who would routinely run 30+min late minimum. Every time I’d see her we’d get bogged down in needless small talk, and she never seemed bothered that other people were waiting to see her. I can see how, for some people, this might be great but for me it just rubbed me the wrong way. I felt like I was the one having to rush out cause I had my problem solved and people were waiting.
On the flip side, I see a doctor now who runs 15min late maximum. I get everything I need done with her in 10-15min, minimal small talk but I get notes, tests organised, and referrals made. I LOVE HER. I can see how for some people though it would rub them the wrong way, but for me she’s perfect.
My doctors are late to every appointment. The last one started a telephone appointment for someone else 10 minutes after my appointment was supposed to start. Then spent about 5 minutes giving the patient some generic advice about dog bites. That’s not spending extra time. That’s poor scheduling and thin walls.
Wow I really want to move to whatever paradise you’re living in where a doctor won’t still try to brusquely rush you through the appointment in 10 minutes or less after walking in to your appointment 2 hours late
It does not mean that at all, it means he is sloppy and doesn’t pay attention to or address details.
I work nights so when I go to the doctor, I make the first appointment of the day. You’re just wrong. First appointment is at 7am? The doctor isn’t even in the office until 730. Then they sit in their office and chill until at least 8. Then they have to be wrangled by the nursing staff and forced into the exam room where they will spend as little time as possible before scurrying back into their office. Then there’s the problem of lunch. No matter how far behind they are, they are going to lunch on time. Lunch is 12-1. There are appointments scheduled for 12, 1215, 1230, and 1245. By the time they get back from lunch at 120, they are at least 7 patients behind
I’m always glad to not be the reason they’re late. The times I have been the reason a doctor is late, I’ve been so grateful to them for saving my life.
This is not always true. I used to work for an orthopedic surgeon who scheduled his patients EVERY FIVE MINUTES.
That’s about 60 patients a day. Of course, he was routinely behind at least an hour, but he got away with it because he was the only hams surgeon in the area.
No, I wait 15-20 minutes just to feel like I’m the one being rushed.
Or… the doctor is 10-15 minutes late (you’re in the waiting room as they run in) and now their whole day is late.
It could mean that.
It could also mean their office is shit at scheduling and the doctor is futzing about in the break room.
No, if their patients need more time, then they need to tell them to book longer appointments to fit it all in to that appointment. I don’t have the time to sit around all day when I only need my scripts or to see the doctor for 2 minutes. I’m sick of the what about other people, screw you, you have to wait attitude.
I thought this about my doctor. Then I had to have an appointment on a day my schedule was tight. I asked what the first appointment of the day was, it was 7:30.
He showed up at 8:15
I can’t say I that knowing that the doctor is listening to a patient for 5 extra minutes would reduce my annoyance that they’re 2 hours late.
I’m fine with it taking longer than expected because it does mean they’re taking the proper time with their patients and will do the same with me. However, if this is a recurring issue, why are the appointment slots not longer? I had to be here at a certain time … for why?
My former doctor was just a yapper. He would tell all kinds of drawn out stories. Really interesting guy and i liked talking with him. But when i’m sitting there in the waiting room for 2 hours knowing he’s just telling some other patient about his backpacking trip in Mongolia, its not as fun
Physician here also married to a physician. I would agree with this. Thank you for your analysis.
Doctor here. This is a complicated problem and varies based on a lot of factors. I strive to run my clinic on time and to be efficient as possible. We are thrown multiple curveballs per day which can throw things off. Scheduling is entirely beyond our control and is at the mercy of administrators who don’t have experience doing our job. I’m fortunate that I have to approve any overbooking, and only do so thoughtfully… sometimes I will give up lunch or stay late. Some patients are complex and need longer visits, but our schedulers don’t account for that and there really isn’t a way to give those folks a longer appointment (until we have gotten to know them over several visits and I can plead with my admin). Some patients are not as complex but are more demanding, and want to spend more time than they actually need. Some patients show up late but still need to be seen (because they are so sick) or still demand to be seen even though they couldn’t make it on time, so I’m trying to find somewhere to squeeze them in to keep them from going ballistic. Occasionally someone will show up having a legit medical emergency and I’m working out how to get them to the hospital without dying in the office. Clinic staff can be really hit or miss as well. If my clinic MA is taking forever to get patients roomed and get vitals, it’s not my issue but to the patient it seems like it’s my fault. Throw in any of the above plus a MA who can’t run things efficiently and you will end up waiting. I desperately want to respect your time especially if you try to respect mine by showing up on time. A lot of times it’s beyond my control.
Or it could just mean they’re disorganized and/or don’t respect your time.
sometimes what you say is true but more often the facility overbooks so severely that everybody waits for hours and everybody still gets the bum’s rush.
I’ve watched a few of my doctors walk into the building an hour past my appointment times with restaurant take-out in their hand so not always lol even the nurses complain my main doctor always comes back late from his lunch. The only reason I still see him is because he’s the only doctor that takes my chronic issues seriously and I schedule before his lunch now.
Nah, mine was two hours late and I still felt like I was being rushed and that the doctor was ready to move on to whoever was next.
Or they could take that into account when scheduling
If your doctor is always late, they are over-scheduling and don’t care about your time. I’m always seen in less than 30 minutes and can take as much time as I want. You need to find a new doctor
If you’re waiting an hour, they’re overbooking.
I’m a scribe. I work for a doctor. She’s an excellent physician and spends a lot of time throughly reviewing the patient’s medical problems. A lot of time she goes over her scheduled time with patients who have a lot of complaints.
Additionally, she works for a healthcare organization, she has very little say in how many patients get booked. Physicals and new patients, for example, are supposed to be relegated to 40 minute time slots, but most of the time they’re put into to her standard 20 minute time slots.
So, she provides an excellent level of care, listens and explains things to her patients well, and really does do her best to stay on time. But most of the time she can’t if patients come in with complicated cases or lots of complaints.
Oh, please! If I had this poor level of time management in my job, I’d be fired on the spot. What a load of nonsense and malarkey you espouse.
Screw that. I had an ENT doctor appointment, waited 1 hour till saw him the 1st time. Had to go back a week later, after 30 minutes past my appointment, I went to the reception desk and told them I’d send them my late fee and walked out. The hopsital called me a few days later apologizing saying that this doctor always ran late and they had lots of complaints. Why is my time not valuable? If i was running more than 10 minutes late, they would cancel my appointment and send me a bill.
My daughters peds doctor is amazing and always on time. I really respect her for it and she is such a goof doctor, too.
I was sitting in my dr office the other day getting frustrated after having to wait 30 minutes past my appointment time, especially because I specifically made the appointment as close to their return from lunch as I could get. When my doc finally came in, she spent so much time with me, answered every question, explained everything so thoroughly. I literally thought to myself, this is why I waited. Because she’s a good doctor who cares about and listens to her patients instead of rushing us out the door.
Agree, my doctor was ALWAYS late. By a lot. But I appreciated it because she’s an amazing doctor and listens to every single concern. Always giving good advice and information. Never giving the brush off. It was frustrating until I got to experience how she is.
When my wife was pregnant with our first one, her ObGyn used to be late all the time. Once she was 2 hours late, and we overheard her talk her nurses. The nurse was trying to tell her that there are many patients waiting. The doctor says “I’m at the stage in life that I can’t be stressed. Go away!”. We are like, wtf?
The doctor just liked to sleep in.
Did a doctor write this? wtf.
If you’re waiting two hours, it means they’re overbooking and NOT taking care of their clients,
I’d say it’s an unpopular take, but also a little ableist, I’m disabled, I very much cannot sir on a waiting chair for 1-2 hours without being in much more excruciating pain than what I probably walked in with.
I go to a eye clinic for monitoring and it’s always very busy. The last time I was there I waited 2 hours to see the doctor but they did put eye drops (not dilation ones this time) and ran a visual field test plus took pics of my eyes. I wouldn’t go anywhere else even with the long waits because these people care.
Here’s a thought, schedule less patients! Time to spend without making others simmer in the waiting room.
I had a doctor go on a tangent about how woke North America is and a spew of bigoted thoughts. we argued back & forth for over 2 hours – i guess we both got lost in the conversation. The clinic receptionist came in and asked the doctor to hurry it along
I strongly disagree. Nothing at all wrong with him taking more time per patient, but it is bad if the doctor doesn’t do a good job of estimating how long they will likely spend with each patient.
The schedule is based on how long it takes the doctor to see each patient, which is something the doctor should know pretty well, whether it’s 10 minutes or 45.
My doctor forgot we were here. So idk about that one, chief.
I don’t usually like this, but I’ll actually agree with this opinion for my current doctor. I always get annoyed waiting. I waited like 30 minutes after my appointment time once. Almost fell asleep in the waiting room. Then they called me in and I actually did fall asleep waiting in the office. I was in there for another 45 minutes.
But when she came in, she asked me everything, didn’t rush me, solved my issues, and she always codes things as “preventative” in the system so I don’t get charged for “diagnostic” stuff. I realized that I always leave happy, even with the 1.5 hour wait. I love my doctor.
I just make sure to book extra sick time so I’m not late back to work. I do feel bad for people who work hourly or who don’t get sick leave, though.
I usually wait about 30 min. Once it was longer bc a patient had a medical emergency, like ok that takes precedence 🙂 but I actually agree with this one. I never feel rushed out the door (except by my own anxiety)
If they care that much, they should schedule fewer appointments.
I have a job and a child, I don’t have time to wait two hours. I will be fired or my kid will be left alone at kindergarten.
If they’re running that late, they need to let patients know so you can at least go away and come back.
If they cared that much they’d schedule bigger blocks of time. If the patient is in and out then they would have a block of time to catch up on records or whatever. But that would mean less patients, and therefore less profit. Healthcare professionals aren’t there to chat, they’re there to make money. And if they’re always running late to appointments, they are bad at managing their time and that interferes with their patients lives.
Also they could have procedures before lunch that end up taking longer which pushes everything back. I work with docs that do that all the time before having their clinic
When I was training in family practice, it was wild realizing that one patient who was 10 min late (15 min late would cause a cancel) or had a lot of things to address (which wasn’t always booked appropriately) could throw off the entire schedule. My preceptor would try very diligently to keep on schedule, but at times, it was impossible.
That might sometimes be true. But it’s even more likely to because they have too many patients or the office is poorly run.
If they’re an hour or two late for an agreed upon appointment, they’re unprofessional and have poor time management skills. That’s not a reasonable amount of time for a doctor to be late for an appointment. Ridiculous.
They should schedule fewer appointments then. I also have a schedule I’d like to keep to- I make appointments when I do for a reason.
My OB was always at least an hour behind schedule and I never cared. He always took time in appointments to answer every question and would always offer ultrasounds at every appointment. Never felt rushed and always felt heard and taken care of.
I just knew to bring something to do while I waited. The one ob I saw before him had me in and out within 10mins and I left not knowing any more info than what a google search could tell me.
Lol did a doctor write this? Trying to spin someone making you wait 2 hours as if its a good thing.
As someone who used to work for a small practice doctor, I can promise you it’s not. At his practice, if you were waiting well past your appointment, it wasn’t because he was spending more time with patients. It’s because he was reading a duck hunting magazine, and your time just didn’t matter to him.
They always tell you to come 15 minutes early before the actual time in case of information change. Otherwise I don’t have to wait more than an hour to be seen.
Maybe that’s why they ask you to come in early to offset this problem.
There’s a limit. I know this one peds doctor that TALKS. Even his patients are like dude, just treat me and let me go especially because you were an hour late and now I got things to do.
Sometimes it’s because the doctor is great and cares. Usually, in my experience, it’s because the doctor is overbooked and rushes through your appointment. Whether that is because the front desk or corporation forced the over-booking or because the doctor chose it, it doesn’t really matter.
I have waited 1-2 hours past my appointment time, only to be met with a frenzied doctor who spends under 10 minutes with me and doesn’t address any of my concerns.
I have had some really wonderful doctors who take their time with appointments. They generally give themselves half an hour or more per appointment, there’s a long wait to get in with them, and insurance doesn’t always cover the visit.
If a doctor is 30 minutes late they should come out and apologize or explain the situation
This is patently false. Doctors purposely overbook appointments to account for no-shows (which are unfortunately common). So the doctor simply cares about their own time more than yours
It could mean they have poor time management and ineffective administrative staff to get ahead of situations like that (and begin rescheduling and apologizing). That’s if it’s any kind of regular thing.
Permanently ill with cancer here. I have several doctors and my experience has been the doctors who are the best (imo of course) keep you waiting 5-45 minutes, and they can certainly have an emergency pop up once in a while. But on many days, 1-2 hours behind for doctor A means missing my next appointment with doctor B, which ~90 minutes between is usually comfortable.
If I need to schedule a doctor for their own special day for their one appointment, I’d see it as a problem unless I’m also reading about how amazing they are in some peer-reviewed publications. Best in class gets a bit of leeway. But doctors come in all stripes and you would do well to read about yours as much you can, and ultimately trust your gut about the care you’re receiving!
People who disagree with you don’t understand how healthcare works
If your doctor is routinely running an hour or two behind it sounds like an operations issue. That can be corrected, but it isn’t a positive. I have a hard time getting in to see my doctor on short notice and I’m never waiting very long yet I still get my questions answered. She has a lot of patients because she’s good, but that means if I have something come up that can wait I have to wait to get an appointment. It doesn’t mean I wait by wasting an hour or two in her waiting room
Disagree.
I had one where my appointment was 09:20, and she walked in at 09:45 with a fresh cup of coffee like nothing is wrong, and took another 5-10 mins to get ready, and I was her first patient of the day. With the 09:40 and 10:00 people already checked in and waiting in the room.
I also had another where I shit you not my appointment was something like 09:30, and it was around 11:30 when I was shown to the exam room from the waiting room. I spend the last hour in the waiting room standing, because there were so many people that we ran out of chairs, and there were people in worse shape than I was. Considering it took me an hour and a half one way to get there, it was very much not worth it. And the doc was utterly useless, and the visit didn’t lead anywhere.
And I was still very much rushed, both times. Practically kicked out the door.
Well this is half true, if they take a long time with you, then yes. But if he doesn’t then it usually they are over booked / worked.
Jesus I wish I was this optimistic
Doctor here. So many possible reasons, but I’ll name a few.
Staffing. When the patient first shows up, the nurse or MA will start doing the initial intake. Depending on the staff, this can take 10-30 minutes, so there is already a delay built in. Sometimes staff call out last minute and then ones that showed up have to do double duty (it’s incredible how many people call out “sick” after a holiday!! Staff are unionized so they have no shame about abusing sick policy). Most of the doctors in my group show up 15-30 min after the first appointment time knowing the patient won’t be ready until then. One of my colleagues routinely shows up to work about an hour late bc she has to drop her kids off first.
Double booking. If there are 2 patients squished into a 15 min slot, absolutely no way to stay on time. About 20% of appointments are double booked.
Language barrier. In my hospital about 30% of the patients need an interpreter. Now everything will essentially have to be repeated twice, hence twice the time.
Poor medical literacy. I explain something to the patient and then they say “can I put my daughter on speaker and you can explain it to her too?” Bam, 2x the time burned.
An urgent medical issue. Doesn’t happen often but if there is an emergency, I have to spend forever calling the ER to let them know I’m sending a patient over or to call radiology to beg them to do an urgent CT/MRI.
Patients who think they can just “walk in”. We don’t take walk ins, but people still show up and demand to be seen and won’t take no for an answer, so we have to squeeze them in.
Late patients. You wouldn’t believe how many people show up hours late to their appointment and still expect to be seen.
Patients who go off on a tangent. Sometimes I regret asking such a benign question as “how are you today” bc some will go off on a 10 min monologue about their neighbor or another medical problem unrelated to their visit.
People with extreme anxiety. They repeat the same questions non-stop and want endless reassurance. Then they finish their visit, leave, and come back 10 min later saying they thought of another question. I had one patient do this 3 times in the same day. I eventually stopped agreeing to talk to her and had my nurse answer any more question, but then it took my nurse away from her other duties.
The above reasons all happen regularly. No shows feel like a huge relief bc I can finally catch up a little bit.
You obviously don’t know much about how healthcare actually works
I worked for a doctor for a few years, and let me tell you that this is not always the case. Yes, there were definitely times when patients needed extra care and things ran late. Understandable, obviously. But then there were the times when he’d show up in the morning 45 minutes late from Home Depot. Or maybe he saw a small opening in the schedule and decided that that was the best time for a haircut, even though it’s 7:30 pm already. Or maybe one of those patients is his friends and he’s in the exam room with them trading stock tips and restaurant recommendations. And so on. It was infuriating because not only did I get out of work 1-2 hours late countless times, but it was always us staff who got screamed at by the patients. And when the doctor walked in the exam room, they couldn’t have been sweeter to him.
At one office I worked at, it was because they were double and triple booking appointments every 15 mins for like 3 hrs straight
This depends on the setting: if it’s public services, yes. Because the way appointments are scheduled is not controlled by them and they us have 15 min or less per appointment. But in private practices, usually you have 30 minutes or more per appointment. If your doctor is taking over an hour to see you, I believe it’s even a disrespect of peoples time.
Mine usually turns the conversation into a way to talk about herself without actually answering my question. So, not always.
If they’re super late it means they have piss poor time management.
I just had an experience that reinforced this. I had a telehealth appt with a specialist, and was waiting maybe 20min for her to join. But once she did, she walked through my chart with me, she answered all of my questions, and she made sure she got my orders out quickly. She said at the end, ‘and now you see why I was running late!’ It was annoying at first, but definitely worth it in the end to wait if it meant getting so much attention in my session.
My previous family doctor was always late, and it wasn’t for a good reason. He often worked only a couple hours a day, was often late getting into office (by hours), preferred to only take phone appointments (of which those were generally late, if not by hours by days), and also often misdiagnosed his patients. He also chose only to have one issue or concern per appointment, so I would have to make multiple appointments if I had multiple concerns going on. Oh, he also didn’t pay his practicing fees so he wasn’t allowed to access hospital databases for his patients information. Not to mention the appointments were generally only a couple minutes long.
Good unpopular opinion!
Nope 🙂
My old doctor used to see paintents for 5 mins by you would be waiting 2-3 hours bc she would be booking 5 minute appointments see heaps of people and if someone went over five minutes or she had to go to the bathroom or literally any small bump it would push everything back
I choose a doctor who is always late, and just book my appointments in the first half of the day. She always takes the time to work with her patients and really hear them. She’s never dismissed me for a single concern. She’s absolutely fantastic. If you find a good GP like this, just find a way to make it work, and cling to them.
It shows they are poor at managing their time. And this isn’t therapy. It’s pretty rare a good doctor won’t instantly know whether or not there is an intervention that can help with your problem.
No. An hour or 2 isn’t normal. Bad opinion. Of course if it happens once who knows but every time you go? More than an hour is insane and you should find a new doctor.
My doctor never has up waiting hours but yet she stays a LONG time in the room every time and always is kind and explains everything as much as we need. She just doesn’t over book appointments.
Doctors can have time management problems like anyone else. And they also overbook.
But you keep on believing this if it helps you sleep at night.
I will say on my part it depends on. I had an OBGYN who encouraged a friend to try a VBA2C even though she had a planned CS. She had no issues with the VBA2C and recommended him to me. I ended up needed admission (pre-eclampsia which he allowed me to work full-time while heavily monitored). It was Friday, he had a trip that weekend and said I could wait for him until Monday or go with his partner. My husband had something out of state that Monday that was the last necessary step for a major promotion and only offered once a year. I decided to go ahead and ended up with an emergency CS when fetal heart rate dropped.
I stuck with him and he was there for my 3rd, VBA2C with about 4 hours of labor. He was worth all of the waiting! He’s out of the OB field now being in his 70s and I’ve had a 3 hour wait for him with an 8 am appointment with no regrets!
Or you know they can schedule their damn visits properly! 1-2 hours late is not acceptable. People have jobs and lives to live as well.
If he knows he always takes longer than scheduled, then they should schedule appointments further apart.
Lots of times ive been in thectoom waiting ror longer than my actual appointment was.
Or they are smoking or eating or sleeping or on their phone. I hate going to the doctors so I will only go if I’m literally dying or need to get a new vaccine. They are always rude and late at the hospitals I’ve been too.
Hearing from someone who left a badly scheduled office, it was the manager’s fault for overbooking patients. The doctor couldn’t say or do anything about it because it was his wife.
This is complete bullshit. I’m a busy person. I have client meetings and I budget time in between so I can run late, listen, etc.
If a doctor needs extra time to listen, then she should budget that into her schedule. I hate when ppl make me wait. It’s so disrespectful.
That depends.
If the doctor is regularly late for appointments then it shows that they have terrible time management. If they are seeing regular patients, they should have an idea whether this patient needs more or less time with them. I know my psych does this when she schedules patients for a new meeting.
If it’s a walk in kind of clinic, then schedule gets thrown out of the window and yeah they’ll be late since they can’t really anticipate what they are seeing next.
That you think that a late doctor didn’t just over shedule or showed up late is on you. A late doctor doesn’t indicate anything about the level of care.
This is why my family has been going to my perpetually-2-hours-late doctor for 30+ years. He never pushes you out the door. He knows me well enough to prescribe ADHD medication without sending me for an expensive and hard-to-book test.
Also try to get an appointment earlier in the day, they’ll be running less behind.
If I am penalized for being late for an appointment and charged for it, then a doctor better respect my time too.
I once was the first patient of my former doctors’s day. He came in 10 minutes late then sat in his office and ate breakfast for another 20 minutes before he saw me.
I know because he left his door open and I could see him enough from where I was sitting to see what was going on. I was extremely annoyed
I scheduled it early and woke up on short sleep to avoid sitting in the waiting room for 45 minutes…and the this fucker still found a way to make me wait even though I was #1 on the list.
I dropped him after that the piece of shit
10-20 mins is acceptable. Any more than that regularly and it’s a scheduling issue. If they are regularly way over time they need to re-evaluate how they are booking people. There’s no reason to have people wait that long other than to torture them if it’s expected.
People also work and have other time critical commitments. It’s impossible to plan and communicate when appointment times aren’t adhered to. It’s very stressful.
It’s also not always true, I used to have a doctor who was terrible at the communication and relationship building side of things, he was proactive about getting tests done etc… so I overlooked that. Then I noticed the wait times started slowly creeping, 15 minutes, then 20, then 30, then 45 was the norm for awhile.
So I decided to change doctors 6 months ago, this new one always has times available and is usually only about 10-15 minutes late. This made me weary at first thinking he mustn’t be good seeing as he always has times available. He’s about at proactive as my last doctor and has impeccable communication and always gives me the time I feel I need.
Agreed I had a really GREAT doctor for YEARS (since I was 4 at least) she always took time to really talk to me and my mother to really see how we were doing
If he does that reagullary, he should take it into account for scheduling time.
I get being late from time to time (it is doctor, there will be emergencies). But being always late (up to two hours) is not a good sign. It is just bad time management and no consideration for others.
Also, adding to this, being a priority case in a hospital is not a good thing to happen to you
I don’t know man, my internal medicine doctor spent all of 5 minutes with me and also tried to rush me (i waited for him for 2 hours. I also have other anecdotes. And my country’s subreddit often have complaints about doctors being late in general. Pretty much my point is that generalizing is pointless lol.
No. They are milking the insurance company for money. Checkup appointments are basically fraud at this point.
Waiting an extra 10 minutes isn’t a huge issue, but it does mean the doctor is now behind schedule, if my appointment takes up an extra 5 minutes, then the next person is waiting 15 minutes, and if theirs takes up an extra 5, then the next is waiting 20 minutes, and assuming each appointment exceeds even an extra minute, means the last person is either being rescheduled for the next day or the doctor is staying late to see that last patient.
This is a messy schedule that interferes with the doctors and the patients day, if someone had to book a day or a few hours of work for an appointment, this could lead to a difficult situation for that person, if their appointment is delayed for 20 minutes or if they have to be rescheduled.
Instead, the length of each appointment should be based on the reason for the visit + extra time to cover for potential over time and paperwork during that visit. Patients should also be required to attend their appointment 15 minutes early.
For example, lets say a patient is coming in for a checkup that should take 10 minutes, the appointments duration should be 20-30 minutes, allowing for any extra work.
So we schedule Bob for 9:00am, the next patient (Sarah) is then scheduled for 9:20 or even 9:25 or 9:30, which means they will arrive at 9:05, 9:10 or 9:15, due to the requirement. If Sarah’s situation is more complicated, then her duration might be 45-60 minutes, and the next persons appointment would be set accordingly.
If the doctor completed Bob’s checkup on time, including paperwork, 1 of 2 things will happen, either Sarah will be called in up to 15 minutes early, or she will be called in on time. But let’s say she was seen 15 minutes early, well, the next patient will also be there 15 minutes early, so it won’t negatively impact their wait time, but let’s say her appointment ended 20 minutes earlier than expected, well, the doctor could contact the next patient by phone to let them know, so now they have a choice to come in up to an extra 35 minutes sooner or arrive the 15 minutes early as required, worst case scenario the doctor has 20 minutes to wait for that patient.
This reduces the likelihood of a reschedule and ensures all patients are either seen on time or at least, 15 minutes sooner, this also allows doctors to fill extra time before the end of their shift with any last minute appointment, so let’s say it was a good day and each patient got seen early enough to leave at least a 30-60 minute gap before the end of shift, well now they can contact a patent on their priority list to fill that spot or bring in a patient who just contacted the doctor looking for an appointment.
I learned this recently as well actually! As a woman, I’ve had doctors that are in and out, with a firm brush off my whole life. Doctor’s visits have been largely pointless and felt like going through the motions at best.
I moved to a new city a few years ago and found a family doctor. Our first meet and greet visit, I waited 45 in the actual exam room to meet him. I was annoyed to say the least. But he came in all smiles, very apologetic and spent an ENTIRE HOUR, going over all of my concerns with myself and previous doctors, getting to know me, and just genuinely….. listening. It was the equivalent of meeting “the one”, but for your healthcare provider!
Since then, I have never once been anything but happy to wait as long as it takes during my appointments with him because I know he is out there being the best doctor ever and I will get my turn.
YES
IME…nah, they just scheduled more than they can serve and you still get rushed out the door after the wait.