Ever had a doctor/dentist actually see you at appt time scheduled?

[Midpack]

I may be humbled by the responses that follow, but I honestly don't remember that I have ever been seen on time by a doctor/dentist. If it was on an exception basis, I'd understand, clearly some specialties can have emergencies and some appts can go longer than expected. But not every time, every specialty. And I know doctors have/want to see more patients than generations past, and may deliberately overschedule so they aren't kept waiting.

I take the first appt of the day with my doctor/dentist assuming they have to at least start on time.

Last time I went to the dentist, I waited 30 minutes. It appears a patient had a legit dental emergency and she took him in before my (first) appt and ran long with him. However, I always wait for her, every time. I admit she is a good dentist.

Had a physical a few weeks ago, first appt of the day. They sat me in the waiting room for 15 minutes. Then took me to a holding room where I waited 10 minutes for a nurse to ask me the same questions as the receptionist already had for the most part. Then another 10 minutes before I see the doctor himself, for about 10 minutes. Then another 10 minutes in another holding room to have blood drawn. Imagine later in the day! I admit he is a good doctor.

But yesterday DW had a podiatrist appt for 11a. At 10a she called and asked 'I'm about to leave work, is Dr X running on schedule? Answer, 'yes, he is.' So she arrives just before 11a, and sits in the waiting room until 12:15p (resorting to deep breathing for the last 15 minutes vs throwing furniture). She came home so mad, she said she just won't go back to him again.

I prescribed a margarita for her, seemed marginally effective. Last thing she remembered yesterday (jk).

It's aggravating to me now, but it was more aggravating when I was working and didn't have time to sit around waiting.

I don't know of many other professions where this would be considered normal (see how diplomatically I worded that). I've never had a doctor or dentist call to tell me 'doctor is running late' as might be the case for many other professionals.

BTW, evidently there's no shortage of doctors, the physician : patient population is above average where we live.

[/rant]

 

[braumeister]

My regular doctor is great; I don't think I've ever sat in the waiting room for more than about five minutes, and I've been seeing him for over 20 years.

Most of the specialists I've seen here are similar. 20 minutes would be an unusually long time to wait.

I can think of only one time I've ever had a long wait (around two hours), and that was because the doc had been tied up by unexpected complications while he was doing a surgical procedure on a patient. It cost him his own lunch hour plus an hour of office time, so he suffered as much as I did.

But in general I think they really don't know how much time they will need for each patient. I've had situations where they spent far more time with me than I expected, which delayed those after me. It tends to even out in the long run, I think.

 

[Brett_Cameron]

Absolutely both dentist and doctors have seen me at the scheduled time but not all doctors and dentists and not every time.

 

[Gumby]

In my experience, they're almost always on time. I usually try to schedule for the first appointment in the morning.

 

[Texas Proud]

Doctors, not so much..... even with the first appt of the day....


My new dentist.... usually 'on time' if we go by the airlines ... but never longer than a few minutes... he is good at getting patients in and having someone prep, x-ray etc while he is working on another...

 

[MichaelB]

My regular dentist is always on time and greets me in the reception area.

 

[whitestick]

[/rant] It used to be that all of the medical community made an effort to see you on time, or apologize profusely if they were more then a few minutes late. NOW, with the advent of these medical practice consortiums and "medical office" groups that appear to have the front office and business office run by some outsourced company, NONE of the medical practitioners are on time anymore. Whether its the over scheduling, or the lack of common sense in setting up sufficient time for the patient's time with the doctor, the results are the same. Before you say that emergencies or some people take extraordinary time, if the scheduling group took the time to understand the patients needs for that visit, they would adapt the time spent to accommodate them, instead of painting everyone with the same time slot. They seem to be in too much of a hurry to get back to listening to their music, or talking about their boyfriends latest episode.The loss of professionalism in the front office, and business office, I think, is due to the running it like a stand alone business with the focus on $$$$ and not service. [/end rant]

 

[Brdofpray]

My dentist is always on time. But then, he is my son. (Do you think that has something to do with it?)

 

[marko]

Just yesterday. Doctor saw me 3 minutes early.

 

[ERhoosier]

My dentist is essentially always on time. My primary doc usu is, but then I also try to schedule early AM appts.

BTW- Docs (& nurses!) also get frustrated by schedules running late. I've been told it's most often because of scheduled patients showing up late (vs true emergency issues), which then causes all subsequent patients to be seen late too.

How Practices Should Deal With Late Patients | Physicians Practice

Chronically late patients... - Ambulatory Care Nursing / Clinic Nursing

Also- Most US docs now are employees & not in full control of how things run. I've heard many stories of private offices being bought out by hospital systems which then cut support staff to inefficiently low level.

 

[easysurfer]

Varies with my dentist. Sometimes on time, some times I wait. Not excessive wait time, perhaps about 20 mins max.

My doctor, I almost always have to wait about 30 mins in the examination room before seeing him, but I love his bedside manner as he actually listens and communicates before any examining. My theory is as I'm waiting that he's going over my health file as often times, even not seeing him for about a year, he'd bring up details of previous visits (a person's memory can't be that good!).

My understanding is often docs and dentists overbook as make up for many patients that cancel. See who blinks first I guess

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I ran on time for at least 95% of patients seen. It requires subtle time-management all day, and accepting that the occasional patients who are say 10 minutes late may have to reschedule or wait around a while so I could sneak them in after a non-show occurs up.

Over all, the patients were grateful and the chronic late-arrivers either learned my policy or wandered off.

 

[imoldernu]

Both within 5 minutes...
May wait in chair or consulting room for another 5 if they're busy.
Never get to read a full magazine article...
A little bit longer in Florida, but no complaints.

Have a good friend who calls first... to see how long the wait will be... then
"call me when you're ready"... works.

 

[Walt34]

Usually within ten minutes or so. They're dealing with people and I would think they (doctors/dentists) cannot know in advance how much time a given patient will need. They can play the averages of course but I'd think they need some wiggle room in timing things.

That said, I have changed physicians when they were always late. One in particular was always an hour or more late with no explanation - three strikes and he was out.

I know what they do is a bit more complicated than fixing air conditioners, but when I was doing that I often didn't know how long a repair was going to take until I got into it. Even then one stuck bolt can add 20 minutes to the job. So I think it reasonable to cut 'em some slack on that.

 

[Katsmeow]

I've had a mixed bag. I've had plenty of times like Midpack says. At my allergists, they tend to get you back to the examining room quickly, but then you can wait 10 minutes or so before the physician (or NP or PA as the case may be) shows up.

My old gynecologist was the absolute most horrible. He could literally be hours late. In fairness, this was usually related to an emergency or a delivery, but still was annoying.

My sense is that nowadays there is less waiting than in the "old" days and it usually occurs once you go back, not so much in the reception room.

 

[jon-nyc]

I'm almost always seen on time. And if I show up early, I'm almost always seen a tad early. Maybe this varies by locale.

 

[razztazz]

Sorry but I have nothing to complain about. I have of course been kept waiting a few times -OVER THE YEARS- but that's still a pretty good battin' average.

 

[travelover]

My current doctor and dentist are pretty punctual. I do try for an early appointment, though.

Funny story - about 20 years ago, I went for physical. I waited for an hour in the lobby, then they put me in a little room and told me to strip. They totally lost me. I sat there for 3/4 hour shivering and naked and had finally had it, so I got dressed and stormed out. When I got home there was a message on my home answering machine from about the 15 minute point in my naked wait - they couldn't find me and were looking for me, evidently, then gave up. I never went back and DW was so embarrassed, she changed docs, too.

 

[Theduckguru]

Doctor and Dentist both on time, specialist never.

 

[Moemg]

My Doctors & Dentist are usually on time . I do always take my kindle loaded with a book in case I have to wait .I also never sit on the examining table . I sit in the regular seat until he or she arrives .

 

[Al in Ohio]

My dentist is always on time given and most of my doctors are on time about half the time and up to 15 mins late the other half.

 

[Meadbh]

My experience with dentists is that they are almost always on time. That's because they know what they are going to do, they do it every day, and if something else comes to light during a checkup, they always make a separate appointment.

My experience with doctors is that they are getting better and there is now at least a 70% chance that I will be seen on schedule.

I am an ex-doctor myself, although I didn't have a clinic. But I did participate in projects to improve patient flow. Here are some of the reasons that doctors are notoriously late:

1. Patients make appointments for minor complaints and once in the office reveal that the situation is way more complex, e.g presenting complaint: longstanding high blood pressure, prescription needs renewal (estimated appointment time 15 minutes); what's really going on: insomnia, weight gain, depression, suicidal ideation (actual time required at least 45 minutes). You get the picture. This is why many doctors have a policy of one complaint per visit. I am not sure this makes sense for the patient though, as you really need to see the big picture.

2. Emergencies that require the doctor to drop everything and deal with them STAT actually do occur. This is more likely with certain types of doctors, notably OBs (babies have no sense of timing), doctors who are on call that day, who are covering the ER, etc. One might ask why they don't separate these activities. That works when there is sufficient activity and staff to do so. However, in a small town, your doctor may be responsible for everything. I'll just get my a Superman cape on.....

3. People keep interrupting the doctor's work and throwing off the schedule. It can be anything from a patient without an appointment who needs to be seen right away, to a phone call from the lab, to a reply from a specialist that the doc has been chasing on your behalf. One clinic doing a patient flow project found that the doctors were interrupted an average of four times during each appointment.

4. Some patients are no shows. This usually happens when the office is quiet. Then they show up the following week when the office is crazy busy and cause inconvenience for everyone.

5. Until very recently, doctors were not well informed about the theory of constraints (operations management). But the penny is dropping. Progressive doctors and clinics are realizing that they need to know, not guess, how long it takes to see patients with common problems, that they need to planning for the worst case scenario by assuming that patients will need an amount of time at the upper end of the range rather than the average time, and by incorporating free time into the schedule to compensate for the inevitable delays that will surely happen because of all the above factors.

This is not a comprehensive list. The bottom line is that when choosing a doctor, if efficiency is one of your criteria, ask whether the clinic is following LEAN principles and has an Open Access policy (meaning that there is room in the schedule to see patients on the day they present). I hope that's helpful.

 

[Ready]

I just fired my last physician for a combination of being 1-2 hours late for multiple appointments combined with a very rude and unprofessional administrative staff. Between the two, I think it's the rude staff that bothers me the most. I mean, if the doc is really going to be an hour late, couldn't the staff at least come out from behind the desk and acknowledge this and apologize on their behalf, rather than just treating it like it's business as usual? If they just made a point to say something I could probably tolerate it. But when they just say nothing, what they are really saying is "we don't really value your time". And if they don't value my time, I don't need to do business with them.

In fact, the admin person who I got into an argument with said she would pass my complaint on to a supervisor...who never called me back. So it's a good thing I fired him.

Overall though, I find that very small offices with either an individual physician, or just a few, tend to be very respectful of people's time. Big operations with dozens of doctors who are just "employees" and don't feel much ownership for the patient's overall satisfaction tend to be the most chronically late all the time.

 

[Ronstar]

My dentist's assistant takes X-rays within 5 minutes of me arriving and the dentist comes in about 5 minutes after that. This is pretty good because I'm generally 10 minutes early. I've only been to a doctor's office once in the last several years and I can't remember if he came in on time or not. I was taken care of promptly in my last couple of emergency room visits, but I waited 3 or 4 hours in an emergency room when I broke my wrist 10 years ago.

 

[Midpack]

This is not a comprehensive list. The bottom line is that when choosing a doctor, if efficiency is one of your criteria, ask whether the clinic is following LEAN principles and has an Open Access policy (meaning that there is room in the schedule to see patients on the day they present). I hope that's helpful.

It was a helpful post, thanks. As I noted at the outset, I can well understand being late on an exception basis, but not chronically late, especially for the first appt as in my case. Guess my doctors haven't heard of LEAN, interesting since we implemented ISO, Six Sigma, LEAN and 5S in manufacturing beginning in the mid 90's.

The volume of paper still in the medical profession is amusing too. Some (not all) of the old timers seem to be resisting technology with gusto. One of my friends is an accomplished 64 yo orthopedic surgeon, totally illiterate technology wise, email is a challenge to him...he just mastered texting recently, thinks it's pretty cool! But maybe he's not representative.