What he writes is true:
At last, you’re ushered into an examining room. The change of venue lowers the level of your fuming. The nurse orders you to strip and don a hospital gown so that the doctor can give you his immediate attention. All this indicates that his arrival is imminent. In fact, as the nurse leaves, she says, “The doctor will be right in.” And he is – 25 minutes later.When the doctor does come in, he gives you his undivided attention – for all of 15 minutes. This is your chance to “talk to your doctor,” as they say in the pharmaceutical TV commercials. And this is the time to ask if a certain medicine you’ve seen advertised on TV is for you.
But as I said before, don’t hate the players, hate the game.
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{ 5 comments }
Yes, the Doctor will be right in. So the patient waits, waits and waits. He even opens the door to check if anyone is still there.
Have they gone home and forgotten about him?
After 20 min the Doctor walks in and says, “Lets take your blood pressure”. AHhhhhhhhh…A little high today”?
After a 20-25 incubation period in a windowless cell, what does he/she expect the bp to be…?
Kevin, you guys set the rules of the game when you sign contracts with our insurance carriers.
–4:08 Patients accept the wait when they choose a specific health insurance.
Solution: pay the doc for half an hour in cash….it’s just primary care afterall, how expensive can it be?
I had a doctor who made me wait forever in the waiting room, and then again in the exam room. This was every time I had an appointment. I fired her and got a doctor who could manage a schedule better (sometimes he falls behind – but I know that if I need more time he’ll give it to me just like he did to the patient that made him fall behind).
A doctor taking a blood pressure? That’s part of what the nurse does to help keep the doctor on schedule. I’ve seen the same GREAT FP for many years. He’s done my BP once – when a new nurse couldn’t get a reading.
If a patient wants to make her face time with her doctor productive for herself and her physician she should have a written list of issues. Sometimes if I have more than two or three things, I tell my FP at when he comes in, I have A, B, C, D, & E. I’m most worried about B and D. After that can we do whatever else you think is most important or what you have time for? Whatever is left I’ll schedule another appointment for.
Sometimes he has time for all of them. Sometimes he says “email me about C and E” but don’t worry about A because that’s just a side effect of B and when we fix B then A will go away. Sometimes I need to schedule to have more time with him.
It’s no so hard. It’s just good communication and mutual respect.
I’ve always been wondering why the nurse invites you into the exam room before the doctor is ready. I really do understand why the doctors can be late – there could be emergencies, other patients may take longer than scheduled time, etc.
What I don’t understand is why take you from the comfortable waiting room when you may be reading; where there may even be a TV, where you are dressed into cold and uncomfortable exam room and make you wait there. If you haven’t brought your own reading material, you generally don’t take magazines into the exam room with you; the exam room could be cold, it generally doesn’t have comfortable chairs. I’d be curious to hear doctors’ explanation of that.
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