For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 11, 2019

“Him”? The receptionist looks female to me.

“Please stay on the line; your call is very important to us.” My foot!

Elly is the assistant to the assistant to the assistant librarian. No matter how late she is, she will not be missed in the slightest. As a doctor’s wife she should understand how waiting rooms work. On the other hand, my mother-in-law who used to work for a doctor told me the only patients worse than doctors were the doctor’s wives.

It could be a boy with a phone headset.

People do not understand what truly happens at a doctor office. Patient #1 makes an appointment for one problem and is scheduled in a 10 or 15 minute slot. But when the doctor walks into the exam room the patient brings up 2 or 3 other issues that the doctor must now address. So a 10 to 15 minute appointment has now turned into close to 30 minutes. Now imagine if every patient or even every other patient does this. It snowballs and within one hour the doctor is now close to an hour or more behind. And it’s impossible to convince the patient to make another appointment because “I’m already here”.

There were a few times I demanded a reschedule when my dr office ran behind. I wasn’t going to wait and wait. I told them my time was as valuable as the doctor’s time and I deserve the same respect to my time as the doctor expects from his patients by demanding they arrive 15 minutes early and be fined if they fail to cancel or reschedule in 24 – 48 hours in advance. Then at the next visit, the doctor explained about how the office runs behind – I frankly told her I did not care about any of that – it was still their job to keep falling behind to a minimum, that patients deserves respect and they do have lives to live such as jobs, commitments, etc. She was startled. I suspect she was being superior when she tried to explain how busy a doctor’s life is – she is just a general practitioner with regular office hours. I told her yes, I know some patients take more time than others, and that is something all offices have to expect and have a plan in place for those patients such as moving the patient to another room to do other things nurses or RN can do. My dr office has several of those. Sometimes I see them sit in the front desk chatting – if they have time to linger and chat, their time is not being put in good use. That happened around 3 or 4 years ago and ever since I rarely see patients in the waiting room. They barely make me wait anymore. I don’t know what they did but it is working.

“I tried to get through to him.” (the doctor) “But all I got was a recording.” (the receptionist)

This cannot be helped short of having back-up dentists and more rooms on standby (not practical). A doctor/dentist can schedule a visit for the usual amount of time, but people are unique and unpredictable biologically sometimes, and visits can run overtime to deal with unexpected health issues.

Think of it like commute traffic. Just ONE person holds up the flow, and everyone who comes after feels the delay.

The receptionist at my doctor’s office and I were talking about phones. She said the doctor goes into the exam room and has to wait for people to get off the phone. I’ll bet they complain if they have to wait.

One of my wife’s specialists is always late, sometimes really late. His receptionist advises all the patients to call ahead and she provides an estimate of the current delay.

That was a perfect way to put it!

I almost always try to schedule my appointments for early in the morning to help avoid the waitwaitwait… but even then it’s always backed up. If I have to wait more than an hour, I ask for my co-pay back and reschedule. We’re busy as well.

I’ve left doctor’s offices before for situations just like this.

This is me when I have to call my cable company

I’m sensing an upcoming conversation of “You’re late!” “So are you…”

I don’t know how they do it, but both my doctor and dentist stay right on schedule. I think it has something to do with having an actual awareness of how long appointments take, and scheduling patients at appropriate intervals. On the flip side, my doctor has certain expectations for patients, most notably: 1) Do what he tells you to do (ie, quit smoking, lose weight, exercise). If you aren’t going to follow his advice, quit wasting his time. 2) Be nice to his staff. He has “fired” patients who were rude to his receptionists.

Lynn’s Comments:

Suddenly, I had all kinds of situations to poke fun at. Cathy’s suggestion was great.

Source: fborfw.com/strip_fix

The computer on the reception desk is at least 10 years old, if not older. The lateness is caused by waiting for that thing to finally boot.

If they are already more than 45 minutes behind for a 10:00 appointment, there is a very good chance the doctor was not there on time. This is not acceptable unless he was delivering a baby or was involved in some type of emergency at the hospital. If this were the case, each patient should have been informed when they arrived so they could choose to wait or reschedule.

Just changed doctors because my old one retired suddenly due to medical issues. New doctor’s office seems to be more punctual than old doctor’s office.

Still no answer about what happened to the boat that was out of gas.

Yep!!!! That’s Canadian health care for you. It takes aboput two months to get into a doctor….unless you have a lot of money and can go to the ER.

Canadian healthcare.

So many folks here advise us to reschedule the appointment. When you have to wait 2 months for the first one, that is just not practical.

Any institution which sees fit to penalize you for tardiness needs to reciprocate

I understand that medical emergencies demand resolution. If my internist notices something serious, I expect them to follow up right away. I don’t understand why they can’t automatically text you that “the doctor is running >30 minutes behind. Feel free to show up 30 minutes later than you usually do.”

Last week the dentist office called (at 2) and said I could show up early for my appointment (scheduled at 3). So if they can do it in one direction, they could do it in another direction, especially since technology allow this to be automated now.

While in the waiting room for an appointment I talked to 3 other people whose appointments were scheduled with the same doctor at the exact same time as mine!

My wife and I use the same cardiologist. If we are waiting in the waiting room for a scheduled appointment and the nurse comes out and says the Dr. has been called to the ER to see a patient who has had a heart attack, we completely understand and re-schedule. We would expect the Dr. to be there for us if we had a cardiac emergency!

There’s a simple solution that will cut down on everyone’s irritation: Keep patients informed. "I’m sorry, everyone, but the doctor is now running 30 minutes (60 minutes… 90 minutes… etc.) behind schedule. If this is going to be a problem for you, please come to the front so we can reschedule you and keep you on your way. Let people know even when they check in. “Your appointment is at 10:30, but the doctor is currently running 45 minutes behind, just so you know.”

This does three things.

First, it sets expectations. When I’m waiting, I’m less angry if I have a sense of how long the wait will be.

Second, it lets people make an informed decision—maybe they can’t wait an extra hour, and they can go before that becomes an issue.

Third. Anyone who leaves makes the queue shorter, and that’s a gift (at that point).

The doctors make is Fundus P Spynkter. Just pee on a stick.

I don’t get it.

Just for spite. You should have the baby in the waiting room.

A receptionist is a receptionist.

The schedules of doctors whose patients are (or may be) pregnant are seldom regular. They can start the day with the best of intentions and then the doctor drops everything to go and deliver a baby. Births do not happen on a schedule, but they get top priority.The same is true in a less pleasant way in a cardiologist’s office. Those emergencies don’t end in blessed events.