My wife once sat in the room for a very long time before someone came to prep the room for the next patient...
this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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I have this really bad problem I have to work very hard to get over when I am at a doctor- I have this need for the doctor to be pleased with me and not disappointed in what I have to say, so I find myself telling the doctor what I think they want to hear before correcting myself and saying the truth. It's like I think the doctor will hate me if I have the wrong symptoms. I don't know why.
Really common. Hard for many of us to not do this. It's the same when you're in technical support; people lie about the circumstances because they don't want to look bad in front of the techie. Or doctor. Or dentist. Or mechanic.
I might get a little antsy once all the lights turn off...
There really is no justification for it. It's part of the American healthcare experience. It makes them money to have no downtime between patients. It costs them nothing to make you wait. They book patient appointments with this philosophy in mind and it's incredibly disrespectful.
The flipside of this is that they have no downtime between patients because demand is through the roof and there aren't enough doctors. Predicting how long each visit will take is fraught, plus emergent stuff may come up that throws off the already tight schedule. Better to have a long time in the waiting room than wait weeks/months longer to get an appointment at all
The same reason flights are always overbooked. They rather oversell and hope someone cancels than undersell.
In my clinic the patients are asking if the doctor is 11 minutes late, i ask them if they've ever read their letters that state prepare to be here at least 2-3 hours in case of delay. Every patient takes a various amount of time y'all.
Every patient takes a various amount of time y’all.
idk, from the patient's perspective my experience has been that I get three minutes of doctor time regardless of what my complaint is or even whether the doctor knows what I'm there for. "I'm feeling kinda low lately." "Here's an rx for an effexor. I'll not be explaining what it is, what it does, or any side effects to look out for. If you have any issues, such as a days long hypomanic episode that leads to you sobbing and obsessively vacuuming the floors, here's the number of someone who cares. NEXT!"
Not my patients, they have complex problems and need a lot of time. Maintaining someone on a real medical keto diet or starting chemotherapy for MS or refilling pain pumps for paraplegics is not a quick task.
My dentist just does this. End of appointment she walks out. No “that’ll be all for you today” or “schedule your next appointment at the counter”
Anyway 10 minutes.
Get a new dentist. I'm in the process of doing this myself
Conversely, you really don't want to be getting seen promptly at a hospital. Ideally you want to be in the middle third of the priority order; get seen reasonably quickly, but not "holy shit you are going to die if we don't deal with you now" quickly
I know you really wanted to say this point but it's mostly unrelated to the original post. The post refers to an exam room, you're talking about waiting rooms.
why the downvotes this is completely correct. Exam room and waiting room is a totally different story
I just start looking for neat shit I can steal for my backpacking first aid kit.
Thanks for the idea!
Seriously tho. Why even bring me in the room if you're gonna take 45 min to get to me. Those rooms are cold, I'd rather be in the waiting room tbh.
At 35 minutes I ask them if they'd accept me being 35 minutes late to the appointment, or would they just consider it a no show
I did that when the doctor was 40 mins to my appointment and it didn't go down well.
I do not recommend pissing off the overworked tired person in charge of your wellbeing
Yeah, I had one time where the doctor was 2 hours late. I had taken time off work for the appointment, too, but had I known he was running that late, I could have worked my normal schedule and still be there in plenty of time. Frustrating as hell, and he sincerely apologized for it.
But you never know what happened earlier in the day that caused that.
Someday, I might be the patient that needs that extra time.
Could be a sign they intend to admit you and don't have any beds available yet
They should communicate that then...
Yeah they should, but they rarely have the time to do that
All the beds occupied means shit is going down in an all hands way and that means updating people on the time table they're being admitted within is a very low priority
That sounds like the sort of problem you get when your country's health care system is both expensive and can't afford to pay nurses properly.
Couple of years ago, I went to an orthopedic clinic with a torn ligament. They tell me to lay down in one of the rooms. An hour passes. Suddenly, the lights in the room and adjacent hallway turn off. They dead-ass forgot me in there and were about to call it a day when I popped my head out.
Ouch that must've hurt
An hour? But, I'm easily entertained by my devices and probably wouldn't notice the time going by. It also heavily depends on what else I have going on; I always pad my schedule for doctors, but even so, there might be something else I have to get to.
It's medical. The person before me may have needed more time. I think doctors have a harder time than most estimating how much time a patient will need, and I don't want them rushing me out the door.
like 40 minutes maybe?
This sounds right, but also,
the incentive to just chill on my phone because I'm finally in a place where I have permission to do nothing but chill on my phone? Very strong.
Well in this case I have been chilling for 40 minutes already.
Ive been to the emergency room on a Friday night in Norway (legevakt). It's about 5 hours. It was fine, it wasn't appendicitis after all.
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