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Waiting in a doctor’s office can be a frustrating experience for many patients. There are a number of reasons why it may take a long time for patience to wait in doctors’ lobby. I have discovered at least 8 reasons for long lobby wait times.
So Why Do Patients get delayed in seeing their doctor?
1. Your doctor is a human
Doctors deal with mundane everyday problems. We get sick, have kids that do not want to get out of bed in the morning, and have responsibilities outside of our job like buying groceries and taking out the garbage. We get stuck in traffic and get delayed in lines at coffee shops. We have arguments with our spouses, have sleepless nights, have tires that deflate and cars that break down.
So, before assuming that your doctor is sitting in the back and checking his/her email and scrolling through latest updates on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram, please give your doctor some benefit of the doubt and consider above possibilities first.
I always appreciate my patients asking me if I am doing well, especially if I am seeing them later than their scheduled appointment time. This shows me that they appreciate my humanity and trust me not to be abusive with their time. I know that most of them had to re-arrange their day to see me. Some have incurred additional expenses of hiring a baby sitter. Some have taken time off work and most are experiencing at least some, if not a significant, discomfort and pain. Both patient and I are humans, doing our best to live out our life with purpose and significance. Starting with this understanding allows us to establish a doctor-patient relationship and then to continue building on that relationship. In some medical specialties that deal with chronic conditions, this relationship can continue for decades until death literally breaks that relationship.
2. Patient that came ahead of you is having an emergency or was running late
In general, doctors divide their schedule into seeing new patients and follow up patients. Reasonably, new patients are allocated more time to allow for gathering of all the facts and comprehensive assessment of health and illness. Frequently, patients present with a long list of illnesses…many chronic…which requires the doctor to take longer than expected to ensure comprehensive and complete evaluation so as to come up with best long-term care plan. Sometimes such an evaluation takes longer than expected, which requires the doctor to run over the time allocated for that particular patient. Seeing patients with complex lower limb wounds is common in my practice. These wounds can become very painful, which requires me to slow down to carefully and painlessly remove bandages that are stuck to patients’ draining soars. If these wounds are noted to be infected, they must be surgically cleaned to avoid progression of infection. This requires numbing of the area with an injection. This also must be done in a gentle manner. Large leg ulcers require application of multi layered compression dressings which take a significant amount of time. There are no short cuts to take here if patient is to have as painless experience as possible and timing of these procedures can become difficult. The best I can hope for is that you, as a patient, will appreciate that the doctor is working on helping a patient who is complex and requires significant help. The only solution in this case is to allocate a longer block for such patients at their next visit.
3. Overbooking: Doctor is being forced to see multiple patients at the same time
Frequently, doctors are forced to schedule multiple patients for the same timeslot. This happens in cases of urgent need to see the patient soon after an initial appointment. This could be because the patient had recent surgery or is dealing with a complication. This could be because a new urgent problem arose and the doctor must evaluate the patient to avoid worsening of the symptoms.
These appointments are called double or overbooks and require significant attention to detail and efficiency.
4. Doctor is working with a trainee
Medicine is a profession that requires continuous training and skill perfection. As technology advances and older generations of doctors retire, new physician must take their place to provide, you, the patient with most up to date medical and surgical care. To allow for this, doctors in training must be involved in the care of real patients. They must witness and participate in the process with direct involvement. They must see and learn to deal with a wide spectrum of human illness from basic to most complex. They must learn how to heal by the book and how to be creative in challenging medical circumstances. They must learn how to be life savers, life extenders, life preserves, and sometimes comfort care providers. One cannot learn medicine from books and videos alone! Your doctor may have a trainee learning from them and must take longer to educate, to answer questions, to guide, to clarify, so that you and your children will have quality doctors to turn to in your search for healing.
5. Doctor worked through lunch and is trying to hydrate and eat
Most doctors rarely get a regular break for lunch. Honestly, sometimes it is even difficult to take a bathroom break in the middle of the busy clinic. Especially if items 1-4 described above are happening. Frequently, I work into lunch hour and even through lunch. Feeling dehydrated, mildly over-caffeinated and hungry, we do our best to serve the needs of our patients. Unlike a car mechanic, we cannot leave you in the room for few hours and come back later. We value your time and consciously decide to place the needs of the patient over our very basic human needs.
6. But seriously…..sometimes doctors are just simply late because they are slow, right?
Absolutely! Doctors can be slow for various reasons! We get depressed, tired, over burdened with administrative tasks created by administrators and insurance companies. We get over worked and our efficiency declines. We over commit and under-perform….but many times we simply force ourselves to slow down to ensure that no mistakes are made as we care for human beings with real lives which can be permanently changed by our actions….good and bad.
7. Limited staff at the office results slow health care delivery
When the staff is late or call in sick, the doctor is faced with a dilemma of either cancelling patients or seeing patients at slower pace. Because patients usually wait many months to be seen, most doctor offices will persevere and work over time and through lunch to make sure everyone gets proper care and medical attention. However, delays are inevitable and good front desk staff should be alerting the patients in the lobby as to the reason the health care delivery is slow. This gives the patients knowledge and freedom to wait or to reschedule.
8. Excessive paperwork and Outdated Technology
Some doctor’s offices require patients to fill out extensive paperwork, which can take a long time. This can add to the overall wait time for patients. This is especially true if you are a new patient and must register with the office. Some offices try to shorten registration process by asking patients to prefill information and submit it over the internet or secure email prior to coming in. On the other hand, doctors are frequently delayed by the need to complete the paperwork for patients prior to helping the next patient in line. This paperwork may include notes to excuse patients form school or work, disability paperwork, Department of Motor Vehicles related documents, orders for supplies, prescriptions, and referrals to other specialists among other things.
Outdated Technology plays a major role in the slow down. Some doctor’s office still rely on paper-based systems, which can slow down the process of checking in patients and scheduling appointments.
So what can be done?
In order to minimize waiting times, patients can try to schedule appointments during non-peak hours, such as early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Patients can also try to schedule appointments with doctors who have a reputation for being efficient and on-time. Additionally, patients can try to complete any necessary paperwork before their appointment, and arrive on time for their appointment to avoid delays.
In conclusion, waiting in a doctor’s office can be a frustrating experience for many patients. There are a number of reasons why it may take a long time for patience to wait in doctors’ waiting rooms, including overbooking, emergencies, limited staff, complex cases, paperwork, outdated technology, limited resources, time-consuming tests, insurance issues and patient’s delay. However, patients can take steps to minimize their wait times by scheduling appointments during non-peak hours, scheduling appointments with efficient doctors, completing necessary paperwork before their appointment, and arriving on time for their appointment. Doctors, on their end, should work hard to improve time efficiency, office staffing, and must communicate clearly with the patients when waiting times are becoming unpredictably extensive.
Author bio:
My name is Dr. Marat Kazak. I have been working as a professional Podiatrist serving Northern California community since 2014. My extensive medical and surgical knowledge combined with an ongoing curiosity to learn about the latest trends define my success in the field of foot, ankle and leg medical and surgical care.
The goal of this website is to give you the tools to better care for yourself, to dispel medical myths, and to empower you with information to save time and money! If you are looking for an answer on foot and ankle pain, this is the place to find it. If you do not see your topic of interest covered, please send me a message and I will do my best to discuss it thoroughly in my next upcoming post.
Visit this blog often to learn about latest developments, treatments, and approaches to healing and recovery!