Isn't youre time just as valuable as you're Doctor's ?

Question

now grant it there are reasonable delays for appointments .. of course there are emergencies ect .. but im talking about unreasonable delays i mean just pure sloppiness .. it happens quite often..

Now if you don't show up for you're appointment they can charge you .

Alright well what about when they waste youre time .. Isn't youre time just as valuable as theirs .. What if you are a business person, a care giver , a funeral director , ect , what if you dont have the luxury of wasting time .. Should not the physician be held accountable when they do ?

Now i am going to get some nasty comments i expect that .. but if you have to work for a living and you have experienced this i think you might understand ...

Answer 1

How could we possibly hold the physician accountable for the time that we wait?  The idea is good, but putting it into practice will be difficult.

Answer 2

Yes, my time is just as valuable as the doctor's, and that is exactly why I REFUSE to be a patient of any doctor that could care less about my time, overbooks himself with patients, and takes forever to take care of me.  

And although some may say that I may be passing up a really good doc . . . . I am VERY happy with my docs who I don't have to wait but more than 30 minutes TOPS, to be taken care of, and another 15-30 minutes to get out the door!  

The time they make you wait does NOT = quality of care provided!  

Answer 3

What really gets me is when I have the first appointment of the day and STILL have to wait over an hour.  There is absolutely no excuse for that.

Answer 4

doctors dont schedule their appointments. their assistants do. he may not even know that people are kept waiting for long periods of time so i would bring it to his attention. a doctors practice is a business and if the customers arent happy they lose business. the last thing they want is to lose money so, like i said, explain that you are having to wait unnecessarily and if it continues youll have to find another doctor.

doctors have to give you notice if theyre going to charge you for missed appointments. to be able to turn around and do the same to him youd have to give him notice, but i doubt he would agree to that arrangement.

call before you leave your house and ask if they are on schedule. if they say yes and you still have to wait id consider getting another doctor.

Answer 5

I'm a teacher and I hate to take off from work.  I find it extremely annoying when I make an appointment that can be handled during my planning time (first thing in the morning), but I end up being there 2 hours.  My dentist isn't like that.  I even tell them I need to be gone by a certain time, but they don't seem to care.  One time I just went up to the desk, cancelled my appointment, and left.  I already knew I was over my bronchitis.  I didn't need him to tell me.  

Answer 6

Boy oh boy -- I know what you mean.  My husband has been ill for 7 years and has many doctors.  We spend a lot of time in waiting rooms.  Some of the doctors are prompt, but we have to wait between 1 - 3 hours for others.  One doctor is always late.  The least time we waited  was three hours, the most was 6 hours.  Yes, 6 HOURS.

It has been my observation that when reception schedules the appointments, they schedule them 15 minutes apart.  If the doctor is late, that puts everybody behind, and the doctor rushes through each patient trying to catch up ... if the doctor is the type who is very thorough, 15 minute increments are unreasonable.  And the doctors and staff don't care, to them you are just a number.  We are herded in like cattle, the waiting room is our corral, then we are herded out.  

Many years ago, my father took me to a dermatologist.  We waited for one hour before being taken to the back.  My dad grumbled the entire time because he had taken off work for the appointment.  While leaving, dad told the receptionist he didn't appreciate being made to wait and if it happened again, he would charge his time back to the doctor.  Well, lo and behold, it did happen again .... and dad sent them a bill.  I don't recall ever going back to that doctor.  I think my dad made his point, though.

Answer 7

yeah i understand where your coming from, ten minute slots with the doctor really isnt enough time to start with.

Answer 8

I absolutely have a zero tolerance for the poor planning when scheduling Drs appointments.  Many times I have had to wait in the sitting area for over two hours past my appointment time, only to be taken back to the examining room to wait another hour or two.  I have even asked the people in the sitting/waiting area what time their appointment was; only to be told by two or three people that their appointment was scheduled for the same time as mine.

Yes - my time is as valuable as the Drs time.  Maybe if we all start sending them a bill per hour for the unnecessary time we have wait to see them, perhaps something would be done about us having to wait so long!  I always complain to the Dr when this happens to me.  Of course, it doesn't get me anywhere.

Answer 9

There are two ways of thinking about this. 1. You are going to the doctor for help, the doctor isn't coming to you. 2. Is your time as valuable as the person they are seeing while you are waiting?  Is your time more valuable than the person that is waiting while the doctor is seeing you?  I don't know any doctor who just sits in their office and makes people wait, the faster they see you the faster they go home.

EDIT: It does matter who came to who.  I have been verbally abused by patients because they were in the waiting room for over an hour.  Yet, when I opened the door for them to see the bloody body I was working on while they were in the waiting room they shut right up.  I to have waited in line at the doctors office and the DMV, and the mechanic shop, and at diners.  If I didn't like it I went somewhere else.  Like every profession some are better than others.

EDIT: Trust me I know the responsibility of a physician and have had peoples lives in my hand.  However, you don't know what they are doing while you are waiting.  In my ten years of working in medicine I have never seen any physician sit and just make people wait.  I have seen physicians show up late on a regular basis, for that I don't know what to tell you.  I am not like that and never plan to be.

EDIT: Chooky here is what happened.  I was just done working on a GSW and had an Air Force Major scream at me, I was enlisted at the time, because he had to wait for an hour his 17 year old son to be seen for a fever of 100.1.  I put the child in the room and walked him, still screaming, to the other room and kicked open the door so he could see why he had to wait.  He apologized repeatedly for his comments.

Answer 10

i agree some dr's are impossible worst is when u are trying to get one to sign u out of hospital that can take needless hours

I found in the city ( mt dad went thru cancer in nyc) its far worse then in the country ( my mom is goin thru it in Vt )

Answer 11

I agree...my mother--in-law recently showed up for a colonoscopy and the nurse got her "prepped" and laughingly stated that dr. so-and-so is usually late on mondays...for no particular reason...the doctor showed up 2 hours late and continued business as usual...my mom-in-law was very upset at how casual the nurse and doctor seemed about his lateness so when she got the bill, she shorted him $70 since her time is worth about $35 per hour at her business, which he kept her from doing...I was proud of her for doing this, apparently the doctor never asked her to pay the $70...if more people would do this, I bet doctors would start to show up on time...;-)...peace!

edit...she had the first appt of the day as well...ugh! 7am...if the doctor doesn't want to work that early in the morning, he should just not schedual appts until later in the day...he never called or claimed to have an emergency come up..doctor's act like idiots sometimes...and I have a few in the family.

edit...I can not believe that "NOWAY" shows bloody bodies to her patients...what town do you work in, I'll be sure to avoid you!