It was great during covid because they could do online/phone appointments for lesser needs
Then the provincial government said they wouldn’t be paid for them
Fun anecdote:
My friend had to take his kid to the local ER the same time as we took our kid to the childrens hospital 3 hours away. They got to the ER in 15 min. We had already been given the “don’t know what’s wrong” from that ER the previous week.
We arrive, get taken immediately back, get a presumed diagnosis by the nurse 10 minutes later, and a referral in 3 days to an orthopedic surgeon. We leave, call our friend to check on his kid (broken arm). Still in the waiting room. 3 hours later, still waiting.
We call again just as we are pulling in home. His kid is now getting a cast.
Unless my kid is near death, we travel 3 hours for ER trips because the local hospital is unorganized as hell (and also assumes every patient, child or not, must have a drug screen)
I think broken bones sometimes need to wait until some swelling is done. Not a doctor, but maybe the ER is also disorganized.
I know this is a popular notion, but have you guys thought about:
- If the doctor sees someone who is 30 minutes late, their entire schedule slips. So y’all complain if they don’t see you if you are 15 minutes late (usually that’s the policy), but also complain if you have to wait.
- Have you guys thought about that primary care appts are in 15-20min increments (30min tends to be generous), which means, they either don’t address your issues if they are complicated. Or they’ll tend to run late?
Many people have no transportation, and it’s even harder to make it on time if one’s sick, so it’s just the right thing to try to squeeze in those who are late, but y’all can’t have it both ways.
source: am MD. And yeah I rather run late but see everybody and address everything I can, than finish on time and help nobody/few.
Hey MD: The fact that appointments we pay a bunch of money for are only 15 minutes is pretty fucked up in a lot of cases. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been pushed out the door with out having my concerns addressed by shitty practices that are in a hurry to cram in as many “patients” (read: customers) as possible while employing as few doctors as possible to maximize profits, often not fixing the actual problem. Instead, we have to book additional appointments with the hope that, eventually after lots of time and money, there will be an accurate diagnosis.
Things weren’t always like this either, shit is getting increasingly dystopian and people are getting fed up with it.
Oh, and the fact that you all can cancel on us at the last minute with no problem, but if we cancel we get charged is absolute bullshit.
Hey MD: The fact that appointments we pay a bunch of money for are only 15 minutes is pretty fucked up in a lot of cases.
It is messed up, I agree. You can’t address much in 15 min. What you don’t necessarily see is the BS administrative burden that also comes with visits that may or may not be factored in to the face-to-face encounter duration.
Oh, and the fact that you all can cancel on us at the last minute with no problem, but if we cancel we get charged is absolute bullshit.
Not every practice does charge for cancellation. But if someone reviews your chart before the visit and you cancel the same day or night before, you might actually end up wasting provider time. Just an FYI.
primary care appts are in 15-20min
That is absolutely not universal.
Not universal, but absolutely common, unfortunately. The standard is 30 minutes for returns and 60 for news, but in private practice they tend to cut it much shorter.
I think I would follow my PCP to the ends of the earth if she ever moved. Standard is 30 minutes.
I have a pcp I’m trying to do the same: my first appointment(s) took a little over two hours. (after the first 45 minutes he told me I needed to come back Saturday and we’d take as much time as we needed to get through my history and current needs). He moved and none of the insurances we can get through work cover him, even though he’s still in driving distance.
That is so frustrating.
yup. a good PCP is hard to find, and even harder to keep in America.
This is generally going to be less a doctor problem and more a hospital admin problem.
Hospitals try and employ the fewest doctors possible to save money, they schedule doctors so they have 5 minutes per patient, and they pack the schedules as dense as possible to maximize the number of cases a doctor is handling.
Any disruption here causes a delay. A patient showing up late, having questions, or the doctor needing to shit. It all adds up to the fail system.
There are simple fixes here like extending the doctors appointments beyond the average required time and hiring now doctors, but that costs money and doesn’t optimize profit for the shareholders.
Agree with your comment. Most medical practices are OWNED by a hospital system. The doctor is just an employee being directed to follow a patient schedule that they did not set up
Yeah the EMR and data driven quality requirements of Obamacare made it almost impossible for a single doctor practice. The costs are just too high.
Add in hospitals wanting a feeder network of patients that can be directed to “their” hospital.
And you have hospitals gobbling up every practice they could in the 2010s.
But if you’re just 5 minutes late to your appointment, you’ll have to reschedule and the next available date is in 3 months.
My doctor have a note on the wall saying that if you miss an appointment he will refuse to reschedule. I had to postpone one appointment the other day so his secretary started saying that if I did that he wouldn’t see me again until november. I said ok and scheduled another doctor. Now they are calling me with an “earlier tine”. GFY don’t treat me like a child
Only 3 months? Here it’s anywhere from 6 monthd ( mayne if lucky in 15% of cases ) up to 2 years.
I almost got stung by that when I was held up for them to check my temperature and hand me a mask during the height of COVID. Like, not opposed to the precautions, but don’t say I’m late when I wasn’t. Luckily the person who did all that hollered to the check-in person letting them know as such.
The other day my doctor apologised for being late because his last patient ran over by 3 minutes.
Sorry no, my doctor is almost always on time. Have been amazingly lucky with that.
If you tend to schedule as one of the earliest appointments in the day, you’ll often be seen on time ime. It’s the later appointments that get shafted.
Due to my work schedule, I always have to pick the earliest available appointments in the mornings, and I’ve not generally had a problem with it at various places I’ve been.
Had a doctor like that as well. He was always on time because he had not patients. Had to drop him when I got seriously ill.
Not the case here, but thanks!
It depends on how busy the day is, I guess. Today I arrived 5 minutes early and waited for less than a minute. But my GP is pretty good at scheduling anyway; I don’t think I’ve ever waited for more than 15 minutes.
you probably aren’t american then
And yet I am!
Are you trying to say that this single doctor is the exception? Surely in america you’ve had this experience.
The best case I normally ever see is a 5 minute wait time. I am rarely seen on time even if I’m early. Which don’t get me wrong, that is reasonable. But I’ve waited 30 min to an hour many times. This issue is super common in this country. I’ve gotten medical attention in multiple cities and states and it’s almost always shit.
A relative just had to go to the ER in Florida and needed some scans quickly. She waited 16 hours I believe. During that time, they would only let her have ice in a cup, not even water. There was little to no communication or way of knowing when she’d get the scans. I wish I was surprised by that story, but I’m not.
I’m American, and not once have I had that experience.
Now the bills and dealing with insurance on the other hand…
Just sharing my own experiences. Sorry they weren’t awful. Not with doctors and nurses anyway, even if I go beyond my PCP. (And I have spent A LOT of the past couple years in the hospital either for myself or family members.) Insurance on the other hand…
OP was a question. My answer is no. I’m OK with someone else’s being different.
I’m not mad at you for having better experiences. Just incredulous, since mine has been so consistently different. Been having this same experience at doctors since ~2000.
Fair! FWIW my insurance was great for decades and absolute shit about the past 5 years, and I absolutely hate it now. But we’ve had a good run with all our doctors.
Wow one doctor! Your personal anecdote must cancel out this stereotype. Here is your trophy 🏆.
The waiting room. I hate when they make you wait in the room. 'Cause it says “Waiting Room.” There’s no chance of not waiting. 'Cause they call it the waiting room, they’re gonna use it. They’ve got it. It’s all set up for you to wait.
- Famous quote from the Fediverse’s favorite frenemy entertainer, I guess.
I’ve been burned by the US healthcare system countless times. It’s really far beyond unacceptable. Recently I have had to deal with a chronically late dentist. I feel like 1 in 25 doctors gives a single shit about patients.
And yet my only experience with healthcare in a “shit hole” country was infinitely better and cheaper even despite a language barrier. Literally one minute wait time.
I think what’s most infuriating is that they don’t even apologize for being late.
Right – or even acknowledge it. But if you are running late and even call to let them know you’re almost there, they’ll want to reschedule if it’s more than like 10 min late. I’ve always found that super annoying. I mean, I get it sort of. But motherfucker, you were almost certainly going to be later than I was anyhow!
Reschedule??? Wow, they usually charge extra and cancel the appointment. Consider yourself “lucky”.
Same! I’ve dealt with several major health issues and been burned so many times. I spent almost a full year bed ridden, waiting for a surgery that was deemed “elective” when I could barely walk, and was in 10/10 pain while on the max amount of pain killers, and fighting with insurance every step of the way to have them cover things my plan covered. All the while, bleeding thousands of dollars to get all kinds of tests done, sometimes multiple times for the same test, and at an already significant financial strain due to being mostly bedridden… Anyone that tells me the healthcare system in this country is OK gets a 20 minute lecture, minimum.
Anyways, I found a seemingly legitimate primary care physician the other day. He was available, on time, knowledgeable, his staff could answer questions, and knew how to read blood pressure correctly. I was astonished. I’m still waiting to find out how his office is too good to be true but, in the mean time… 🤞
Elective is a terrible name for what it actually means which is basically just “not emergency.” Even if it’s super necessary, if you schedule it in advance, it’s elective.
I’m so sorry you’ve had to deal with all of that. Sounds very awful. I hope the new doc continues to be decent.
Well… The surgeon wasn’t very good… He made multiple mistakes, that I’m aware of, and my issue is coming back a little over a year after the surgery… Now with staph infections because he used non-degradable sutures on the inside and they’re coming out! And I still haven’t financially recovered from the last round… Yay America!
Sorry, I’m not trying to unload on you. Really just venting to the void. No need to respond to this one haha.
Thank you for reading and sympathizing.
No worries, you can vent. That is crazy.
My late grandfather had a triple bypass surgery in probably 2006. A year or so later he kept noticing a pain in his leg. He eventually was able to work out a fucking needle that had been left in his leg during that surgery. It’s probably insane what goes on sometimes…
Geeeez lol. We’ll here’s to hoping there’s no needles inside me! xD
FWIW depending on the procedure, some sutures are meant to be permanent and if they dissolve the results of the surgery will fail. Extrusion of sutures is usually not part of the plan though.
I’m grateful to live near a Mt. Sinai location. Another factor here is that some parts of the country have better healthcare than others. You might consider moving elsewhere in the U.S. or to another country if you anticipate continuing to need more than the occasional doctor visit.
Air travel industry has joined the chat
But how else am I going to wait in line for an hour so some dickhead who couldn’t graduate high school can touch all my shit and throw out my toothpaste?
And it would be an even longer wait when the doctor is waiting on patients.
Just put them at the end of the queue if they’re not there when scheduled.
… the end of the queue? You mean after working hours?
But it’s not just a job it’s a fulfilment of the Hippocratic oath
/s
When I have to go my doctor when sick, I have to come at 11am to be among the first 5 people, for the doctor that comes and start’s working at 1pm.
Edit: last time I wen’t at the start of the year, I came at 11:30am, was 6th. By the time the doc came around 12:30am there were over 30 people waiting.
Depends on the doctor and type of problem. If there are complications, the period of time spent can increase variably or it can decrease if the problem is more easily resolved.
I’m not a regular at the doctor’s office yet. Last year I came 10 minutes early and the doctor was on time.
the trick is to not show up early. never had anyone say anything to me 🤷🏻
