Unless that doctor is performing emergency surgery there really is no reason they need to keep people waiting that long. it’s so disrespectful, doesn’t matter they are a doctor.
So what happens if a patient lies about their concern and a 15 minute checkup is all of a sudden a 45 minute spiel. You can’t just leave a patient you’re treating, they try to allow for some leeway, but they’re a business too after all, can’t be sitting around either.
they’re a business too
Without meaning to go completely off the rails, maybe this is part of the problem? I mean we can’t sink our entire GDP into toenail fungus, but there ought to be some middle ground somewhere.
Even in public health care, family doctors who don’t work in government hospitals or clinics, operate their own “store front” have their own bills and employees and can only bill the government certain amounts for certain visits. So if they can’t bill the government for sitting around, it’s cash out of their pocket for their expenses.
Right and that is getting off the rails. I know providing healthcare isn’t free so consuming it isn’t free either. But when a public need becomes a profit-seeking venture, I start getting skeptical that this is the best way to ensure efficient use of resources.
Profit
can only bill government certain amount for certain visits.
How are they making a profit seeking business when they can only bill insurance, WCB, or the the public health care system a certain amount for each visit. There is some uninsured things, but they don’t charge unreasonable amounts, people would go elsewhere. It keeps everyone honest in that regard. And they only charge since they can’t bill anyone else and it costs them time and money.
You called it a business. Which I read as “profit-seeking endeavor”. Perhaps you intended it differently.
Not for profits are also businesses… your assumptions are your bias… and ignorance.
Edit Actually, which definition are you even using here…?
No definition has “profit” in it that I can see
My intention is the definition of the word, what is YOUR intention here dude?
It’s awesome being a doctor because you get to try your best to help people all day, get held up by patients talking about 6 different issues they didn’t even book their appointment for, held up by admin demanding you finish your notes between patients, held up by arguing on the phone with insurance that won’t authorize clearly necessary treatments, held up by nursing staff (understandably) needing your input on things between patients, and then read people bitching online like you were just spending that time drinking coffee and flirting with the nurses when you have a caffeineh eadache because you haven’t even had enough time to stop and drink coffee at all AND admin is bitching at you because you aren’t seeing enough patients every day.
A doctor tha expects those things to happen should schedule based on that knowledge.
If the admin has unrealistic expectations, then those expectations need to be addressed.
Unfortunately the doctors usually aren’t the ones managing the schedule. The admin / secretaries are.
And good ones, that understand that a new patient with no file, that doesn’t speak the language, that has a history of complications with her previous pregnancies, etc is not gonna be a normal half hour consultation are extremely rare.
Even kind ones that see that you are swamped day in day out just seem to assume that these are teething difficulties, adapting to the position, etc (even after almost two years).And so that’s how my wife ends up doing a ten hour workday. Nonstop. With no break for lunch because hey, too bad, she finished the morning shift two hours late and now her first afternoon appointment has been waiting for half an hour…
But of course if you tell patients there is no time for them because the few doctors that are here are already overworked…
(to be clear, I’ve been saying the same thing as you to my wife for two years now. But apparently the message is not getting across)
And you haven’t even gotten to the medical billing phase that’s been strangling American healthcare systems for decades!
Thankfully we are in France and everybody is fighting tooth and nails to not become that. So far so good.
everybody!?
what an overstatement!
“Nurse, can you bring me the big needles?”
My psych often has people wait for their appointments. I’ll be scheduled for 800, there at 740, get seen at 840.
And you know what? That’s perfectly fine. I feel taken seriously, he listens, he asks, he quips, he shares his own experiences, he does all he can to make me comfortable telling him about the shit going on in my head. I’ll work up the courage to tell him something I find hard to phrase and unpleasant to talk about and he takes it with a relaxed professionalism, waiting patiently for me to finish, asks questions (usually very precise ones, both unpleasant in how close to home they hit and reassuring in the implications that I’m not the only one with these issues) and looks for the best way to help me.
So when I sit in that waiting room, watching the minutes tick by, I imagine he’s taking the same time with a different, far more difficult patient. Perhaps someone got slotted in for an emergency, perhaps someone needs blood drawn for a routine check and really, really hates needles, perhaps someone is having a breakdown… I don’t know and I don’t care what ails the other patients, but I know that I want them to receive the same quality of care as I do. To me, that’s worth waiting for.
There’s a movement inside of Healthcare to get the average Dr’s office humming like a dentist. Which, if you’re concerned with patient care at all, is impossible. You’ll see it with posters saying only one issue per visit, which also greatly imperils the patient as sometimes a diagnosis will change based off one symptom. You’ve got a good attitude about this. Please share it
As far as I can tell, my psych is doing well enough to not worry about his living, not particularly keen on getting rich, deals with some super heavy things and curses at the stupid computer system he’s required to use, so he’s probably chronically low on fucks to give for seeing the maximum amount of patients per day.
But yeah, when you see him walk out of one room with a heavier-than-usual frown on his face, taking a deep breath to compose himself before walking into the next one, you start to wonder how many times he’s had to put on a stoic face before seeing you. And then he sits down, asks how you’re doing, whether you’ve done that thing you mentioned wanting to do last time and gives you full attention.
I have nothing but respect for that man. I’ve moved a good bit away from him now, but I’d still rather take the long trip to see him for my regular appointments than search for a new one.
This is the product of clinics being owned by corporations chasing a specific return, and not being owned by a local group of physicians who actually want to care for people.
Shop local applies.
We get the same issue in Ontario with family health teams. The structure of the corporation matters, but so does the funding model
If the appointments last longer…maybe he should schedule them properly
You got downvotes for it but nah, it’s on the Dr if this is a regular occurrence. Once or twice or going over a min or two is fine, but regularly being 45 minutes late (hello my last Dr) is a sign you’ve lied to everyone scheduling an appointment about how long they are and when to even be there for one
This comic is based on a true story. I’m certain, as father of a two year old.
That toddler’s name: Albert Einstein
I usually don’t get all that pissy about doctors running late. However, there was one time I was really irritated.
I took my wife to the doctor for an appointment. She got the first appointment of the day. We were there 45 minutes early. We waited more than 30 minutes past when the appointment was supposed to start. While we were waiting there, the doctor came in through the waiting room.
It’s one thing to be running late because of the normal day to day delays that happen in a medical practice, but if you’re actually just running late getting to work, you should call and have your staff let the patients know.
This did not happen.
Idk toddlers be like that
Nothingeverhappens
Why not? Toddlers do things like point out clocks all the time. The “passive agressive” part is the parent’s interpretation. The actual action that is described is so very normal.
Yeah, that’s absolutely something a toddler would do
