Sitting here in an Eye Foundation hospital waiting room with my mom. Arrived to discover her appt was cancelled but they'll "try" to squeeze her in since she's here. Then they want to start asking questions about why and how she could've made a mistake and come today when they called to cancel. Turns out her appt was not cancelled they just assigned her another Dr. and the receptionist assumed it was a cancellation. Then they put her in a room and a Dr. came in but she wasn't on his list so she left. 45 mins later Dr shows up and we're out of there in 10 mins. Right hand don't know what the left hand is doing. And it don't care. How many ways can you spell FUBAR!?

That's like having a 10:00 appointment, then not being seen till 11:30. Every doctor's office, every time, no matter what kind of doctor. I couldn't run my business that way. And I love when you show up at 10:00, sit in the lobby for a few minutes and they call you back, then you sit in a room for who knows how long before you get seen. My time is JUST as important! Some of the local doc-in-the-box places open at 7:30, but doctors don't come in till later. What????

Par for the course in most Dr. offices.

Toothdoc, you wanna chime in and offer your side of the story?

I used to see a orthopedic doc that set all appointments at 8am or 1pm, then saw em in the order they showed up. So if you showed up at 8am sharp and were last getting signed in you sat there all morning. I hated that doc......

I have been going to the wound center going on 21 weeks...everytime my appt is from 1:15-2:30 and I spend from 40-60 minutes in the lobby and finally get called to a room and spend anywhere from 30 minutes up to 1hr waiting in the room for the doctor who only stays 5-10 minutes...this is every Monday like clockwork..

I've noticed that the pharmaceutical reps don't show up and have to wait out in the lobby with us commoners either.

Now I have to say, my dentist is SPOT ON! Every single appointment for years, if it's for 10:00, it'll be 9:59! Always timely.

I have always said that there is NO need for a sign-in sheet if I have an appointment. Sign-in sheets are for walk-ins! I show up at 8am for my appointment, then sign a sheet with lots of other names??? In my best slow, sarcastic voice: "That's not an appointment!"

I don't believe they always see the doctors. Bringing coffee and donuts to the nurses in back helps grease the skids, though.


I've left offices after sitting 30-40 minutes following an early arrival and then watching other people who got there after me go in. Latest was at SportsMed in H'sv ... got there early, sat ... sat ... sat ... watched two other folks get there after me and be taken back by the guy I was there to see. I didn't even bother to reschedule.

My thing is, why don't they just make the appointment for when you'd get seen? Then everybody is happy.

They do at my general practitioner's office. They used to have a back entrance and back waiting room for reps and patients getting regularly scheduled shots, but they close that off. I asked my Doc why and he said the HIPPA regulators got on them about it and stopped it. Now the reps sit in the main lobby with all the sick people until one of the 4 docs has a free minute to see them.

Pisses me off too. I see close to 100 patients a day. If I'm more than 10 min behind, I'm personally in the waiting room apologizing and handing you a movie ticket or coupon for some starbucks. By the same token, if you are more than 10 min late or frequently cancel without notice, you get to find another Dr. It's all about efficient systems and every team member on the same page. Most doctors are great clinicians, but not great business people. I'm fortunately both

I've considered sending an invoice for MY time spent waiting for my appointments. It would be better to already have one printed up, just enter the amount of time and total $$ and hand it to the receptionist. No doubt her look would be priceless.

Do keep in mind though that we are working in a dynamic environment and procedures do not always take the same amount of time, nor do the patients. At a mechanic, you drop your car off and they call you when it's ready. You can't just leave colon or teeth or whatever and let them call you when it's fixed. We schedule based on how long something SHOULD take. Alos, people do not value medical visits and you would be amazed at how many no shows and last minute cancelations happen. This leads to double booking of time slots, kinda like airlines over sell flights. I get a ton of positive reviews about how we run on schedule, but its ALWAYS followed by somebody else complaining we did not spend enough time with them listening to their concerns. It's a very thin rope we are walking to make everybody happy.

I have got to give a good word for The Orthopedic Group off of Airport Blvd. in Mobile.I recently had back surgery, and every appointment I had before and after the surgery,the most I remember waiting was about 15 mins. past my app. time.On the other hand,I will never,ever go back to the Orthopedic Clinic on the service road of I-65,the earliest I ever got in there was 1 hour and 10 min past my app, time.

How many of you go to a pain clinic and are tired of being treated like a drug addict? My wife would like to find one that will treat her as a patient and not just another doper looking for their next score.

40bucks, you care to say which floor you and your mom were at and name(s) of the Drs that saw y'all ? You can pm me if you wish.
Thanks.

My dad (who I like as much as anyone on earth) used to say "that doctor doesn't get me back, and he doesn't spend enough time with me" when referring to neurologists or orthopedic surgeons. I'd say "why do you go back." He'd respond "because they take my insurance."
One of the only ways to find a medical doctor's office that is consistently on time, respectful, spend more than enough time on comprehensively taking care of your medical problems....pay more for it. Fee for service style. Not "In network" or "PPO" or "managed health care." You wanna play, you gotta pay. ALMOST no one wants to pay for their own healthcare in this country.

I don't believe this applies to dentistry across the board....yet.

My girlfriend had the same problem at Schaeffer eye center. Happened a couple times, the second time causing her to be late to work. She found another eye doctor.