this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
1335 points (98.9% liked)

Memes

51337 readers
999 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TheWiseAlaundo@lemmy.whynotdrs.org 46 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I actually did ask my Doctor about why this happens once. Mainly it's because if a patient before you has something that needs more time it messes up the schedule for every patient after... and this happens every single day. If no one cancels their appointments, then this problem just continually compounds throughout the day. The best bet to being seen on time is to be the first patient of the day.

Or just intentionally show up a few minutes late and take the mild scolding from the receptionist. It's not like they're going to turn ya away

[–] Subverb@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago (2 children)

They will totally turn you away. Because of traffic I was 10 minutes late to my general practitioners office a few months ago and they refused to see me. I was pissed.

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 5 points 2 years ago

I wouldn't call 10 minutes "a few minutes"

[–] ReluctantMuskrat@lemmy.world -2 points 2 years ago

Doc was behind already and had something after work they were not going to miss. Did they also charge you for missing the appt?

Docs could schedule in some extra time to better accommodate the eventual appts that run over, but then that doesn't maximize profit.

[–] stebo02@sopuli.xyz 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

you'd think they'd leave some gaps between their appointments to compensate for this phenomenon?

[–] somethingp@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

For the US: Sometimes the physician doesn't actually control scheduling, it is done by whoever owns/runs the clinic. Also, there arent scheduled gaps because lots of things need to happen when a patient shows up. So while the physician finishes up with the last patient and is doing their documentation, an MA or RN will start intake on the next patient taking them to their room, getting vitals, etc. Then the physician sees them. So even 20 min appointments are generally longer because someone might arrive on time at 1pm, then by the time they're checked in, in a room, done with vitals, it might already be 1:10. So there are like natural gaps that occur in the schedule. But I agree that the lack of transparency in the process really makes it difficult to stay on schedule. Ideally there'd be 1:1 appointment: documentation time for each patient, however payment structures are not designed for this. Instead they like to maximize the number of patients seen per day.

[–] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I've never had a doctor's appointment go shorter than an hour, even for a very minor or basic visit. Often they last about 2 hours.

[–] somethingp@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

I'd be willing to bet the actual interaction with the doctor is a short part of the 2 hours that you're there. And I think this is where a lot of the scheduling frustration comes in.