Anyone have a good quote about late people?

[DrJay]

I bust my hind end to stay on time or very close to it (read: you can expect me to walk into the exam room by 10:30 if your appointment was at 10:15) and I'm getting increasingly frustrated with all the people out there that think nothing of wandering in at 3:43 for their 3:30 appointment. By the time they get checked in and put in the room, it's 3:50 or later and I'm automatically 20 minutes behind, not fair to the people with subsequent appointments. My nurse and I have developed a pretty low threshold for asking late folks to reschedule.

Anyone with a nice, slightly pointed but polite quote about being late that we could put in the exam or waiting rooms?

[lonewolf]

I think we have a chicken and egg situation here.

On the other side of the stethoscope, my experience is that I usually have to wait 30 minutes to an hour beyond my appointment time, due, no doubt, to those less punctual folks preceding me who may be conditioned to come late so they won't have to wait so long.

[guru]

I think we have a chicken and egg situation here.

On the other side of the stethoscope, my experience is that I usually have to wait 30 minutes to an hour beyond my appointment time, due, no doubt, to those less punctual folks preceding me who may be conditioned to come late so they won't have to wait so long.

Agreed, and I work with doctors every day.

So if I'm reading you right Jay you're telling us that when a patient has an appointment you actually are with them at that time(assuming they are on time)?? You're either a psychiatrist or a magician.

[bad hammy]

Re: Anyone have a good quote about late people?

(read: you can expect me to walk into the exam room by 10:30 if your appointment was at 10:15) and I'm getting increasingly frustrated with all the people out there that think nothing of wandering in at 3:43 for their 3:30 appointment.

Doc,

Right up front you posit that if you are 15 minutes late you are on time, but if a patient is 13 minutes late they are late. I don’t get it! On the surface it is the height of hypocritical arrogance. Common courtesy says that if the appointment is scheduled for 10:15, both parties show up at 10:15.

My sister is a nurse practitioner and I have heard stories for years about how much paperwork goes on per patient and how difficult it is to keep to the HMO-mandated schedule of a patient every 15 minutes. I know that front-line medical professionals are under a lot of time pressure. But your up-front premise shows an anti-patient bias.

Fortunately, I almost never have this problem. My GP of 20 years is very punctual (as am I), and better yet, I can almost always get a same-day or next-day appointment.

[tafnut]

Sorry DrJay, but I have to kick you while you're down too. I am HYPER-punctual (Navy habit, never shaken), and nothing chaps my derriere like being 5 minutes early to a medical/dental appointment and waiting 30-45 minutes to be seen. And I ALWAYS make sure I get the FIRST appointment of the day!!!

[bambam]

Jay, I don't think they're on our side here.

Here's my recent story. Two weeks ago, I had an appointment with a new dentist I was going to try because mine is retiring. Appointment was for 2 PM. I showed up at 1:50, signed in, started talkng to the office manager, who is the husband of the female dentist, and who I went to Duke with. They take me back and a dental assistant sees me at about 2:30. She finishes and her husband/manager comes back and we shoot some bull for awhile. I had a 4:00 PM meeting at my office. At 4:02 or so, my COO calls and asks me about it, and I ask her to re-schedule to 4:30. At 4:25, I start asking her husband/manager if she can see me. He goes out to get her and behind the door I hear, "Who does he think he is? Doesn't he know I'm busy and besides, its a Monday." She's comes in at 4:35 and spends a few minutes with me. I'll be finding another dentist.

I've never been that far behind in my life in the office and if I am behind, which is pretty rare, I am very apologetic about it when I walk in the room. To a degree we owe that to our patients, and I agree that their time is as important as ours.

What we cannot control is when a patient has an unforeseeable problem that takes far more time than required. If you have a 2:30 appointment and I am on time at 2:15, but a patient walks in with a dislocated shoulder at 2:16 and neurologic symptoms, and it takes 30 minutes to get it reduced, so I am now late seeing you, what would you have me do? Leave that patient with pressure on his brachial plexus from the dislocated shoulder, so I can you for your problem. If that was your son, would you want me to do that?

But I would be apologetic to you and explain why I was behind. Unlike that dentist who will not be seeing me again.

And like tafnut, I am punctual, but not from the Navy. In my former career, if I was ever late, even 2 minutes, I was disqualified, maed no money that week, and likely would have trouble paying the hotel bill.

[tandfman]

I just walk out on doctors who are more than a half hour late. And I let their office know why. I can recite any number of horror stories about docs running very late and either not apologizing or uttering only the most perfunctory apology. Unfortunately, I've always suspected that for every real emergency, there were twice as many cases of simple overbooking. I think some doctors simply do not respect the value of anyone's time but their own.

One suggestion I have is that if you are within 10-15 minutes of your doctor/dentist's offce, call before you leave and ask whether he's running on time. I followed that practice for many years with my dentist and almost always got an honest and helpful answer.

[MJD]

I just heard the other day how many doctors don't book the last couple of hours of the day because they know they will be that far behind. The situation is what it is. Get the first appointment of the day and, if you can't, bring something to do.

[SQUACKEE]

Its obviously hard for doctocs to schedule patients because they're quessing how long each patient will take. :? The receptionist and doctors should be smpathetic to people waiting and let them know they're sorry. :cry:

All of us have a friend who is always late and its hard not to take it as an insult. :x They dont respect you enough to be on time. :roll: I have a million faults but being late isnt one of them. :wink: I would want to be early to my own execution. :twisted:

[gh]

Re: Anyone have a good quote about late people?

....Anyone with a nice, slightly pointed but polite quote about being late that we could put in the exam or waiting rooms?

Sorry doc, my response if I were late would be, "Hey, only 234,225 more late arrivals to go and I'm even with the medical profession." You may be on time (for which I commend you), but I'd say that in the 30 years of my professional life, my average for getting into an exam room is 15 minutes after appointment time,and doc walking through the door is 25-30. Seriously.

[Zat0pek]

My record wait on a doc is about 90 minutes.

If I leave a client sitting in my waiting room for more than twenty minutes, I have a mutiny on my hands.

With some judges, if I'm even five or ten minutes late for a hearing and I haven't called, I'm in contempt.

All of that said, I think ALL of us are waaaaay too overscheduled and getting everything done timely in a day has become like trying to pour five gallons into a three gallon bucket; we just can't fit everything in no matter how hard we try.

[tandfman]

The problem with many docs is that they deliberately overschedule in order to avoid the slightest possibility of ever having five minutes on their hands without a patient in front of him/her who can be billed (directly or through insurance). I'm sure there would be good ways to use that time (perhaps including just taking a break), but that doesn't seem to be in their game plan. They're taught to maximize their production, and they try to do that, sometimes to the point of losing patients who have lost their patience.

[Zat0pek]

The problem with many docs is that they deliberately overschedule in order to avoid the slightest possibility of ever having five minutes on their hands without a patient in front of him/her who can be billed (directly or through insurance). I'm sure there would be good ways to use that time (perhaps including just taking a break), but that doesn't seem to be in their game plan. They're taught to maximize their production, and they try to do that, sometimes to the point of losing patients who have lost their patience.

Just like airlines overbooking flights.

[tandfman]

Just like airlines overbooking flights.

But the airlines then offer denied boarding compensation.

[bad hammy]

Just like airlines overbooking flights.

But the airlines then offer denied boarding compensation.

True, but still a major inconvenience.