Respecting My Time

I am writing this blog, as a Shout Out to all you Moms and Dads, to see if anyone else has run into this problem in the past!! Please post me if you have!

Yesterday, I called my primary physician's office, to see if I could get in for a quick look at my ankle. Over the weekend I had gotten bitten by something, on my ankle, and it proceeded to swell up. get bumpy and a red rash started forming all around my foot. I was hoping that it wasn't infected and the cortizone cream I was putting on it, didn't seem to be helping.

Luckily she did have a segment of time available and they scheduled me for an appointment at 3:10 in the afternoon.

Being respectful of other people's time, I finished up some work, got in my car, drove the 25 minutes to my doctors office and arrived at exactly 3:10 for my appointment. When I entered the Valley Women's practice, the waiting room was full. I checked in with the receptionist, paid my co-pay and proceeded to find an empty chair and a magazine to read -- thinking that she would see me shortly.

I breezed through the magazine, looked up to see that some people had gone in, a few more people had arrived after me, signed in and were also waiting......30 minutes has now passed....and I look around for a second magazine -- wondering when my name will be called. I read through that magazine, and the waiting room proceeds to empty out as most of the people have been called in to see their doctor. 50 minutes and counting, and I am starting to get a little annoyed. How long do I have to wait for a simple check up of my foot? And what about those other people that came in after me, they have gone in already?

I grab another magazine and fly through it because I am really not interested in anything right now except seeing the doctor and leaving -- there are a zillion other things I could be doing with my time besides sitting here waiting to be seen. Finally, a little over an hour, I walk up to the receptionist and ask her what could be taking so long, and that I have been waiting here for over an hour. She looks right through me, as though it is not her problem, and proceeds to find my chart posted on the wall, waiting for the doctor. She tells me I am next.

I go back to my purse, but cannot sit any longer. I start pacing....looking at flyers posted on the walls, reading brochures that are set up as takeaways on the side tables, and make note that I am the last person waiting in the lobby area.

Finally, a nurse calls my name and I follow her to one of the back rooms. She wants to take my blood pressure and I explain that at this point it is probably going to be high, because I have been waiting for an hour and 20 minutes for the doctor. She apologizes, takes my blood pressure and then fills in the chart with information about why I am here to see the doctor. As she is leaving, she ASSURES me that the doctor will be in, no more than 5 minutes. (wrong again)

10 minutes later the doctor finally comes in the office to see me. (Now mind you, she is a wonderful person, with a warm and caring personality -- which is why I am here to see her -- but really) I explain my situation, she assures me that my ankle is not infected, that it looks like I had an allergic reaction to the bug bite. She gives me a perscription for an ointment to put on it and recommends that I take Bendryl to fight off the allergy. (I am done within 5 minutes).

But I cannot hold my tongue at this point. As we are starting to walk out of her office, I shared with her that "for future reference" if she is 40 minutes behind when someone comes to sign in for their appointment, it would be really helpful if the receptionist would have passed along that information. In my case if I would have been given that information I would have accepted it and then chosen to walk over to Starbucks next door to get a coffee, I could have than made a couple of phone calls and I wouldn't have felt that my time was wasted. But instead I felt like I was held captive for all that time, and that my time was not respected.

I then added that I Don't Know Any Woman that has 1 - 2 hours to waste. Does she? Then in her soft, warm manner she went on to explain that my wait time was a little excessive, but there were some older people ahead of me that took longer, and they don't like us to "stray too far" in case they call me -- but the norm is an hour wait!!!!

Upon hearing that I proceeded to leave and was just totally floored!! Instead of trying to take my advice about giving her receptionist a heads up.....instead she talked about how a few other patients had increased my "normal wait time from an hour, to 30 minutes longer......but the normal wait time is usually an hour!!!"

Unbelieveable, I mean than why even schedule me for a 3:10 appointment, instead I should have arrived at 4:10 pm to be on time!

Thank goodness I am a very healthy person -- I am rarely sick and never see a doctor, except for my yearly gynecology exam. So I haven't been in the situation where I have had to wait like this for a doctor. Even when I was going through my infertility treatments, and when I was pregnant with my son -- both doctor's offices had me in and out rather quickly. And even my pediatrician has me in and out!

This is why I was so annoyed -- if other doctors that I have seen respect my time enough to get me in and out rather quickly -- shouldn't all doctors be that way??

My question to moms out there is -- have you found this to be a norm at doctors offices and if so, how long have you had to wait? Does it truely annoy you, to be wasting your precious time while you are waiting to be seen, or are you so used to it that you come prepared by bringing a book, and you just expect to have to wait?

I think it is really the responsibility of the doctor to work their schedule more efficiently to not allow this long wait time in their office. But if it does happen, as things do come up, they should pass along the delay to their receptionist so the patient that is waiting feels respected and can now make decisions about their time!!!