My dermatologist dropped me, culled me that is, from their patient list since I'd not been to see him in the last 10 years. Told me they're not accepting new patients. I almost had a come apart having just taken my son there 3 times in 2 months. They decided they'd take me as a patient again, no problem.

You under 40? That's the recommended age to start these days.

All the reps require is a signature. So until that is all your appointment takes than you really have nothing to moan about

Just make sure you get a yearly PSA

Most of the time I use no lore than 5 minites of the Dr's time. They can wait. My time is just as important to me as theirs and the Dr's is to them.

I carried my to see a neurosurgeon in Pensacola for a 10:00 am appointment, a 2 hour drive over there. We sat there until 5:00 that afternoon and was told the doctor was gone for the day. I ask them almost every 30 minutes about her appointment and was just told "soon". We left and havn't been back.

I was wondering when this was going to come up again. About every 2 months someone posts this. Sorry guys. However, most of us in the health profession value your time as much as you do.

I know you have better things to do than sit in a waiting room or the exam chair waiting on me. But honestly, at that moment I don't have anything better to do than listen a crying patient who's husband of 48 years passed away last week or explain to a mother that her child will never see well out of one eye. I could go on. If that runs me late seeing you, I can't help that.

Personally, nothing gets me more agitated at the office than knowing hard working folks who have taken time off or kids out of school and have had to wait on me. I hate you having a long wait as much as you hate waiting for me. Sometimes despite all efforts, it can't be helped.

And you're right Fuzzy, sometimes it's an hour wait to spend 10 minutes with the doc. Thank God. That usually means all is well. If I'm spending more than 10 minutes with a patient it's usually because there is a serious problem going on OR I'm talking hunting.

But there is a flip side. I also can't stand someone with the attitude of impatience. This ain't a fast-food joint. It's a medical office.

Carry on.
Dr. B

Couldn't have put it better myself. We don't exactly sit around and eat doughnuts and drink coffee all day. That would be jawbone

Winter is coming.

My hunting and golfing buddy is an ortho surgeon, my wife is his nurse. They are constantly battling wait times. A lot of the times a patient comes in with one issue and the wants to talk about 3 more ailments. Sometimes an OR case gets complicated and backs the entire day up. And a lot of times they actually move appt times up when he can start early. I do know it's a constant struggle especially with the new insurance requirements. Pre cents in order to schedule surgeries or MRIs, etc. take these things into account and it causes a lot of issues

I will say he tries to schedule new patients on a certain day so he can see less people but spend more time with them.

And you always have the ER patients from the night before that have to be worked in. Especially on broken bones, sometimes those can't wait.

My advice is to get the first appt of the day, the first after lunch or the last one for the day. Anything in between is a toss up. Or.....have a buddy that is a doc and will work you in without a wait lol.

And regarding the medical sales people, they typically talk to the nurses as they are the gate keepers. Not sure about the docs on here but at this particular clinic the nurses run the show and do a dang good job of it. At least my wife does according to my buddy. She keeps him on the ball.

48 is pretty young, isn't it? Actually 47. Got 2 more weeks til 48. Reckon I need to find me a young lady doc for the procto? Can my wife do it for me at home?

Absolutely not...dignity will suffer a significant blow, as it is. Don't make it worse.

My doctor is my neighbor and has explained this to me. He's a GP and assumes that he can do a general checkup, diagnosis, and/or referral in 15 minutes. If he finds something that the patient wasn't complaining about, or suspects something that requires further investigation, it ads to the wait time downstream. If you want them to really take care of you, read another magazine and stfu. Just my personal experience with a friend/doctor.

I have had Dr's both ways. Had one talk to his stock broker for over an hour while I was waiting next door so I heard what was going on. He also scheduled 8 people for the same time. I left, never went back. But I also have had a hand surgeon get an emergency call while I was waiting so I had no problem coming back later. Giving the office staff chocolate gets me seen faster for some reason.

It's a constant struggle with scheduling enough patients to pay the bills and getting patients worked through. Reimbursement rates suck, Medicare is the worse. Practice I worked for in CA considered eliminating Medicare patients cause of the reimbursement rates and they nickel and dime you to death. Then you have the patient that comes in for one thing and they have several complaints or you find something abnormal that wasn't expected and bam a 20 minute appt slot just turned into a 45-50 minutes. Give your doc a break, most are doing their best. I trained with an Internal Medicine doctor in California, my last 4 months of PA school I spent with him. He was at the hospital at 5am rounding on patients, at the office by 7-8am reviewing the days patient list, labs and such. 1st appt 8:20, his lunch was spent at his desk reviewing charts and sometimes his wife would bring him something or he just ate from the 5 gallon Costco cashew bucket on his desk. Wednesday usually a drug rep brought lunch but other than that it was cashews. Office closed at 530 and he was always still at his desk going over charts when we all left. The MAs said some days he'd be there 9-10 at night. These folks devote their lives to healing, cut them a break and don't be to mad if you have to wait a little while longer, they don't do it on purpose.

My Physician is also my hunting/fishing/hang out buddy.

If he sees me in the waiting room and he's running late, he will either text me with an estimated time or get his nurse to come whisper it to me.

He has told me to go get lunch before and come back, that he had an unexpected hang-up.

I'm dang fortunate that he is a real friend and a real pro all rolled into one.

I ALWAYS refer to him as Doctor in front of folks, because he has earned the honorific for his hard work and white coat, but when we are alone, it's first names.

Most on this site have waited all day/weeks on a deer
and go do it again and again Relax life is good.

You're not getting your oil checked at 47? You're getting short changed. My doc started me at 40. First time I thought he stuck me in the taint with a cattle prod.

I see an Internist not a GP. I have never waited more than 10-15 minutes in the waiting room and no more than 5-10 minutes when I went back. He's never in a hurry when he's talking with me.

I ain't complaining. They do a PSA and it's always pretty good.

It won't happen again with my father. Ill call ahead next time and explain that they have to be within 30min of appoitnment time. Could care less how long I wait for myself, but battling an Alzheimer patient for over 2hrs ain't fun.