Past your scheduled appt. at a doctor's office??? I took DD to the dr. a few weeks back, and we waited NINETY minutes past her scheduled time.

We have an appt. this week, and I told the girl I will not stay longer tthan THIRTY minutes past the appt. time. Is the dr's office allowed to charge me for that appt. if I get up and leave (after 30 mins. past appt. time)??

Thank you.

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I do not know if they will charge you.

So often I want to send a bill to the Dr.'s that keep me waiting! That is so infuriating, frustrating and disrespectful. With the rare exception, Drs. are overbooked, or are entertaining drug/Rx reps. It's not that they are just so concerned and providing extraordinary patient concerned.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

We've waited an hour in the waiting room and another hour in the room for a specialist. At my ob's office I've waited an 1.5 hrs in the waiting room. They had one morning where every patient was a first time mom and found out at their appt they were in labor and were being sent to the hospital.

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spent 2 hrs 15 min. at oncologist and only 10 of those minutes he spent with me

I'm know I"m not exactly answering your question, but suggesting you schedule the 1st or 2nd appt. of the day (I always try to) because they have absolutely no excuse to be behind that early !

I am with you, they over schedule, they allow people late to keep their appts., and they take "walk ins" . It seems to me they accomodate the wrong people for the wrong reasons.

Yes, I know sometimes there is an emergency, and sometimes people tack on other reasons during their scheduled appt. As for emergencies, I am doubtful there has been an emergency every time I've gone ! As for other reasons, they should tell the person to schedule another appt. so the doctor can adequately address their concerns.

I equate this to the 10 item or less lane. It's easier to just let the minority have their way while inconveniencing the majority for fear of a scene.

Most signs say if it's been beyond 15 minutes, let them know. I do at 20 minutes and all I get is a muffled, half meant apology. I agree with Marilyn, IF they had to pay the patient, things would change. Doctor office appts. are now worse than the cable company not being on time !

dl

I would only wait that long for an OB (who might get called out to help another preggo lady!). Our Dr office has a sign asking you to tell the receptionist if you have waited 15 min past your appt time. Only once did I have to say something and she checked out what was going on and actually put me in with another dr within 5 min. I heard he tell another person (who came in after me) that he could reschedule or it would be about 45 more minutes. I guess someone who came in didn't explain how severe the situation actually was. Our doc office will spend time with you if you need it (not good if you are waiting but good if you are the patient). gotta say that I don't go to the doc often though (2 times in 3 years) so I only have to judge from that.

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I had a dentist that used to make me wait up to 2 hours to see him, I got fed up and changed, my new dentist only makes me wait 20 minutes at most.

I guess it would depend on how badly I needed to see her/him and what my schedule was. There is no excuse for making you wait that long. I would either change doctors (if this happens a lot) or send a letter to the business office explaining that your time is as precious as theirs and since they bill for missed visits (and at my former doctor's office they canceled the appointment if a patient was more than five minutes late) that you would be billing them for your time. Fat chance of getting any money but maybe they would get the point.
It's infuriating when someone else thinks their time is more valuable than anyone else's.

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Depends on how sick I was. If I was really sick and needed to see the doctor then yes I would wait. I would wait anyway unless I REALLY needed to be somewhere else, it seems as though this is getting to be the norm for doctors these days (where I live it is anyway).

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I've found that if I mention that I've been waiting too long, they usually take me back quickly to an examination room, but then I sit there instead. Annoying either way. Do I stay put in the waiting room with lot's of possibly sick people, but with magazines and fairly comfortable chairs or do I sit in the exam room, half or totally naked, freezing and listening to all the chatter through the doors of everyone else getting service?

I'm beginning to equate visiting the doctor to airline travel. Lot's of waiting, poking, probing, and taking off of clothing, and lot's of people around who are possibly sick and often rude.

I forgot about my family practice dr. First you have who knows how long wait in the waiting room. Once you get into a room you'll be there for a minimum of an hour. Doesn't matter why you are there. At least they have a TV with cable in each room. That's why I haven't been back in along time. I don't have time like that to spend waiting (with a little one there too).

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I've never lied to you. I've always told you some version the of truth.

I am a nurse at a doctor's office. It is good advice to schedule your appointment at 8 or 8:15, 1:00 or 1:15. The usual problem we have running behind is the patients that bring all their complaints in one visit. You may be following up on your diabetes, but you also have a cough, your blood pressure medicine needs renewing, you have back pain and oh yes, by the way, you have a UTI (which you went to the bathroom right before I called you in so you have to drink a cup of water so that you can get a specimen for me).....so your 15 minute appointment has turned into a 30 minute appointment. Each of these problems require a different 15 minute appointment. When booking an appointment, if you have many problems, you should tell all the problems to the scheduler so that they can book your appointment accordingly. Two of these type of patients come in and bamm.....we are now an hour late. My doctor can take on two problems at a time but I, as the nurse, have to say we cannot cover all of your problems in one visit...what are you two most pressing problems today. I feel horrible for the patient that comes in regularly for their follow ups and has to wait. We want to get you out of the office as bad as you want to be out. I love, love, love my patients, don't get me wrong but for every one patient that does things by the book, there's 5 that don't.

I think waiting anymore than 15 to 20 minutes is too much. My time is valuable too. Nutella is right. I used to work for a Dr and I hate to say it but they only want to spend a short amount of time with the patient. They schedule 15 minutes for the patients. Thats all the time they have for them and if it goes beyond that, like Nutella said then people have to wait.

As for them charging you, yes they can, but its up to them if they will. Anytime an appt is scheduled you are required to pay for that time slot, but again that is up to the office.
Recently, I was a late to an appt for my daughters Dr. (strange morning, we got stopped by a train and stuck behind a car hauler! When we got to the office we had to wait to sign in!)
The nurse warned me that next time I would be charged for the visit and would have to reschedule! I explained to her what happened and especially since I had to wait to sign in. They do not have sign in sheets you have to tell the girl behind the counter you are there.

Definitely schedule in the morning, or be the first appt when they come back from lunch.

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Years ago after the birth of my second child, I was experiencing persistent abdominal pain. My regular dr was on vacation, so another Dr in the office had me go for an ultra-sound, then come in the office around 1 for an exam. Waited an hour for the exam, then he sent me back to the waiting room while he got the ultrasound results. Waited , and waited. I inquired twice at the nurses window. Around 5 pm, one of the nurses informed me that the Dr had actually left for the day awhile ago, and had simply forgotten me. He called me the next day to discuss my results- did not apologize. i let him know I did not appreciate the experience I had in his care and he told me 'these things happen'.

Ob-they get what they need...now I only go to a Gyn though....he is always on time. Regular Dr... if I am not in within 30 min I will leave. My time is as important as theirs. I WILL NOT sit in an office for hours. They are running a business and as such must be reasonably on time.

I hate waiting! I once had a Dr. who had me wait 45 min in the waiting room then another 45 in the room. I left him a little note stating he was a good Dr., but my time is very imp. I switched Dr.'s and haven't waited more than 20 minutes since then. If you can't switch Dr.'s either do 1st thing in the morning or right after theri lunch.

Went to the appt. This doctor has two offices (I did not know this until the day before the appt). Our appt. was in the doctor's OTHER office. I told the girl on the phone it would have been nice to know this when we made the appointment. She told me "we don't get the new schedule until the 1st of each month, so if you scheduled before that, we don't know what office he will be in." Um, I scheduled on the 4th.

We got to the office, 8:15am appt. Waited about 8 - 10 mins before being called back. Once called back, we had vitals done (temp. of 96.7???) then placed in ANOTHER waiting room. A TV was playing and what looked like Skinemax was on the tube. We waited, no kidding 29 minutes. I was ready to get up and leave when the girl came back to get us. We were the only ones in the waiting room, it was in the back of the building. We waited in the exam room for just a few minutes, then in walked the PA. The PA!!!! Oh, I was not happy. I scheduled my appt. with a DOCTOR. Yes, I am THAT picky. This man was clueless, and had not seen anyone with my DD's condition. While he was "nice", I made it clear he could not answer my questions, and he got the doctor for me. When the doctor "came in" (poked his head in the door) he just gave us a thumbs up. EXCUSE ME???? I asked well, what did you think of the XYZ test that was done??? Only then did he even LOOK at it. He is the one who said "oh yes, bring me a copy of that....I would like to see that". WTH???

When I checked out, the girl was very nice, as she was when we checked in. She looked up our already scheduled appt. for November and said it was still set for the time originally given me. I asked her what building THAT would be in??? She flipped the calender and said "oh, back at the main office". I asked her how she knew that already, and told her what the other office told me. She said "oh, no. The only reason you are in this office today is because the dr. gives shots on Wednesday......your next appt. is on a Tuesday". WTH???

Long story short, she gave me the name of the Office Manager for the other office and told me to be sure to call her, she will want to hear my concerns.

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I think I'd find a new doctor. Too many weird things going on there. Sounds very disorganized.

JMO,
Lisa

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I would love to, however, we live in a pretty small area, and this guy is truly one of the best.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

The other week I had the first appointment of the day at the dentist office. They are new in town and I decided to give them a chance. I arrived 15 minutes early figuring I would have paperwork to do. I stood at the desk for 5 minutes waiting for that becasue the staff was chit-chatting over coffee. Then it was 30 minutes past my appt. time before I went back. Excuse was the computer would not come up. That does not work for me. The computer does not do my examination. There is no info on me in that computer since I am new. They were not bad and I have to go back next week for some fillings - we'll see if they are timely at this appointment before I schedule the rest of my family with them.

EVERYTHING is done on computers. All records are kept in digital type format. While you may not have had any info in there---they NEEDED to get your information in there and get it correct so that they can charge you (or your insurance) correctly. Now, that doesn't excuse the delay while they chatted over coffee. However, it does explain why there was a delay in getting you back.

Good Grief! My MD doesn't even own a prescription pad! He either calls in the Rx, faxes it in, emails it, or prints it from the computer (to give to me). Cuts down on fraud....

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"