Pluggers by Rick McKee for July 08, 2023

That soon….

Well, he Did say ‘might’, and he is the only one in the waiting room- So, maybe he Will get lucky.

I’ve had the first appointment at 8am and had the doctor come in at twenty five past.

Heaven forfend you be late though.

Better than a couple of times, my appt. was at 10 AM was there at 9:45 AM, then got called into the exam room at 10:30 and the dr. showed up at 10 minutes after 11 ! ! ! !

HA!

Wow, you saw a Doctor?

All that education and the MDs still have trouble telling time ;-)

The clinic I go to does a great job with scheduling. Every appointment, I get in on time.

Many doctors are going to a concierge practice-limit their practice to 700/1000 patients who are willing to pay $1,200+ year out of pocket allowing for same day appointments/no waiting/longer exams.

I had to go to doctors office for a prescription refill. I sat there 2 3/4 hours waiting for doctor. Finally I went to desk and girl said they forgot about me. They had to actually let me out back door because they had closed the front doors.

Why do they always say appointment is 10 AM, be there 15 minutes early. Couldn’t you just say 9:45?

Had 8:30 with eye doc yesterday. He walked in at 9:15. I had decided to leave at 9:30 but did not need to.

Most pluggers know to bring a book to read for any appointment.

I schedule my appointments in the morning as early as possible. Not only does that get them out of the way, but there isn’t as much lag time caused by preceding patients/clients/customers.

For doctor appointments, I also bring a written list of any health issues I’ve noticed since my last appointment. [I have a tendency to automatically respond with “I’m fine” when asked how I’m feeling and then it is hard to make any issues sound important.]

My doctor is great! I’m in the exam room within a few minutes of my appointment almost every time, and he shows up within ten minutes. The only exception was for a medical emergency that occurred while I was in the waiting room. They rescheduled me for the next week, and there was an ambulance crew coming in when I was leaving.

If a Doctor can’t get me in within a half hour of the appointment time, I walk out, after explaining at the desk, in a voice that all the waiting patients can hear, why I am walking out!

“Waiting Room” is the correct name… you Wait, Wait, and Wait some more.

But the doctor will charge you $100.00 if you are late.

I always ask for early or first morning appts. How behind can one be, emergencies aside, at that hour? Late enough but not as bad as watching them eat lunch in the nurses’ station, while they are an hour late to begin with…

Not me, cause I leave if they’re more than half an hour late…

Absolutely

Some doctors are like airlines – it’s ok for them to be late.

I’m really surprised there’s a clock in the waiting room.

It’s a frustration, but I think we all know how long some appt can last if something comes up within the appointment. that would be better than the doc saying, “Ok, well, we couldn’t finish up so can you come back another day – your time is up! – NEXT!”

My nine o’clock appts always start on time.

I can remember days like that. Fortunately since relocating, our new medical providers are quite prompt…(relatively speaking!)

Thanks for the reminder. Later this week.

Ho-lee mo-lee, can I relate to this one!! Due to constant appointments, I seem to be at one doctor’s office, or another, more than I’m at home! They say to get there 15 minutes early, so, I am… someone MIGHT come get me, 10 minutes after the official start time, then, I sit in the exam room for another 10-30 minutes, waiting for the doctor! The only bright side? I started scheduling appointments a little later in the morning, so I miss a little work, now.

I usually get called in from the waiting room fairly close to my appointment time, but then I have to sit and sit in the waiting room, after the nurse takes all the preliminary info. That’s the hardest part for me, as I can’t comfortably sit in those chairs, so I’m constantly getting up and looking at the charts on the wall while I wait.

We never have waits like mentioned – or like mom has. We see a GP and also an Ophthalmologist. Both of them are great – we may have to wait, but not unduly long and generally husband – who has a fear of being late to a doctor’s office and also always thinks everywhere we go takes longer than it does – has us at the doctor’s office 1/2 hour to 45 minutes before our appointment. Unless one of us has a problem that they are seeing the doctor for, we make our appointments back to back, we both go into the exam room together, he gets exam first, then I do. No problems, no question.

Last year when I took a shower one night I noticed one of my feet was blue at the heel. We called the next morning and got an appointment that afternoon – yes, had to wait, but then again they were fitting me in. Sent for leg scans (as mentioned in post about mom) just in case though he was pretty sure that time would heal it fairly quickly – and that was true.

No NPs, no assistants doing the exams – the doctor did the exams himself.