r/mildlyinfuriating • u/transfatpikachu • 1d ago

I just wanted a hot dog Doctor’s appointment scheduled at 9:00am, still waiting almost an hour later

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I have a lot of doctor’s appointments, and I know how busy and hard these people work. I’m not mad at them and I’d never be rude. I know it’s not on purpose. Nevertheless, it’s still a bit infuriating to make time for a scheduled appointment, arrive 15 minutes early (required), and then wait this long with not even an acknowledgment of the delay from anyone. Sigh. 9:55 now, still waiting.

Edit: I really appreciate all the comments! The doctor ended up coming in shortly after 10. This was a specialist ortho appointment for my shoulder. Still no acknowledgement of the delay, which would’ve been nice, but I’m more annoyed that my concerns were pretty much brushed off again during the whole 3ish minutes he spent with me. I know waits can get long, I wouldn’t care as much if the doctor had at least seemed somewhat concerned with my issue. Sigh… gotta love American healthcare!

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u/Cool-Jacket-9837 1d ago

One time I just walked out. I was in there for almost 2 hours with zero communication

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u/LeoDeLarge 1d ago

That’s the worst part, shit happens throughout the day but the least they could do is communicate what is going on

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u/Cool-Jacket-9837 1d ago

Right that’s all I wanted: some communication. I went and told the front desk that I’d been there for two hours and tried to ask for updates but just got the cold shoulder from MAs

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u/omnichronos 1d ago

Then you were smart to walk out and I would leave a shitty review on Google for them with all the details. That gets their attention quick.

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u/NovaWildstar 10h ago

I did exactly this and they called to say they had a "thyroid emergency" really? I left the review up, its the top review.

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u/omnichronos 9h ago edited 9h ago

I drove from Detroit to Western Kansas (3 days) to take my elderly mother, who is on oxygen, to a 10-minute eye surgery that would realign her eyes (Strabismus). After an hour of driving that morning, the doctor's office called and canceled. She wouldn't reschedule her until a month later. So I gave my sister, who is an hour away from my mom, $200 to take her (my family is very poor). Again, one hour into the drive there the morning of the surgery, the office called and canceled. Both of my sisters left scathing online reviews, saying things like "perhaps the doctor shouldn't get drunk the night before her Monday morning surgeries." It tanked her Google review star count. The doctor called my mom and said she needed to understand that she had two young children at home who sometimes required extra care. The doctor offered nothing and left my mom wondering why the doctor couldn't afford a babysitter. Now Mom will never get the surgery.

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u/NovaWildstar 9h ago

If you ever wanna negative review trade, lmk,

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u/Healthy_Piglet1139 1d ago

They've got you by the balls and they know it. They can mistreat you and disrespect you in any of 1000 different ways and you can't do anything about it, or even complain. If you treat them with a fraction of the disrespect they treat you with you can lose your appointment, and you can't just go see someone else because a) you're all the way at the back of the waiting list, and b) they're not going to be any different.

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u/No-Bus-7986 3h ago

It’s not intentional. Who hurt you?

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u/Healthy_Piglet1139 3m ago

Decades of lack of respect for my time by doctors and the receptionists who work for them is what hurt me. I realize it's not intentional, but non-psychopathic human beings have the decency to apologize when they've wronged someone, even if it's not on purpose, and the empathy to understand why the wronged person feels aggrieved. Neither of those traits are present on 90%+ of doctors or their staff.

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u/Viperbunny 1d ago

The frustrating part is there are many places it can communicated. I am doing my externship to be a medical assistant. One of the providers was so late. The front desk needs to let people know that it will be a little bit. We don't even have overflow rooms, so each provider gets one. That is tricky when you have back to back patients. Nothing makes me more anxious than when I am sitting there waiting to room a patient, but the room isn't available. There are times I here I literally an sitting there on my phone just waiting. I am sure if a patient saw it they would think it is laziness. But I am beholden to the provider. One of them drives me nuts. He literally disappears and needs to be texted, but he will only listen to two people, so I have to track them down and have them text him.

I love it, I really do, but I feel bad I can't make things run smoother.

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u/Greeneyednerd 20h ago

Why does he disappear when patients are waiting on him? Drives me nuts that it's expected. We can't be late or else we'll get fined/penalized but they can have people wait who take time off work and need to get back to their lives. Different field, but my branch manager at a funeral home once said to us we don't need to be worried that people are waiting because "they expect to" just like in doctors offices. Like what????? No we should be making this process smoother for everyone! This was when we were trying to bring to him items of concern such as long wait times for customers of certain reps.

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u/Viperbunny 20h ago

It drives me up a fucking wall. I am just the extern, so I can't say anything, but I call him a house cat. He is retired and only comes in a few days because he was driving his wife nuts. Honestly, he is the stereotypical autistic savant. He is very smart and deligent, but he is also a pain in the ass. And I can't make him see the patients any faster. It stresses me out so much!!

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u/edophx 1d ago

I had to fight a bill where they put me in a room for 3 hours and nobody showed up, I left, went to a different location.  In and out in 30 minutes.

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u/Wjreky 1d ago

I feel like you could argue that as "services not rendered."

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u/kr27734 49m ago

Out of curiosity, why did you wait for 3 hours before leaving?

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u/OrcinusVienna 1d ago

Worst was my 8am appointment. Office opened at 8am. "Sorry the doctor is running late with his previous patient."

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u/Fun-Dentist-2231 1d ago

Not an excuse per se, but many doctors round on their hospital patients in the morning before clinic.

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u/Cool-Jacket-9837 1d ago

Mine was similar! It was like 8:30 like bro wym you guys just opened!

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u/schu2470 1d ago

Dr.'s work day doesn't always start when the clinic opens.

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u/Cool-Jacket-9837 22h ago

Even if it doesn’t, their schedule should not be that far behind so early in the official work day. That’s a flawed system and disrespects the time of every person walking in for help.

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u/schu2470 22h ago

Take that up with hospital and clinic management. Doctors by and large are not in charge of their own schedules. Most docs in the US work for clinics and hospitals rather than for themselves. They work clinic hours or hospital shifts and often have duties outside of the 8am-5pm the clinic is open. Rounding on patients in the hospital, MDCs and tumor boards in the morning, calls or consults from the ED or other departments they can't ignore or put off, insurance peer-to-peers or appeals that can't be rescheduled, or perhaps things that happened in the patient's appointment that was right before you that needed more time than the schedule allowed for and needs to be handled immediately. All of those are valid and reasonable reasons why a doctor might be late to your 9am appointment. Don't like it? Complain to the hospital management and vote for better politicians that aren't going to continue defunding public health initiatives and cutting Medicare/Medicaid benefits so hospitals can be more adequately staffed. Under the current system no one's time is more disrespected than the doctors and nurses actually providing care to patients.

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u/OrcinusVienna 21h ago

My obgyn was not at all connected to a hospital. It was a strip mall. I get it that things run late but at least come up with a better lie or the truth. Yes theres a chance he had an emergency appointment before the official open time but its still frustrating that every 8am appointment I make (to get in before work) is always late. I have to show up 15 min early even though doors do not open til 8 but he can show up at 8:30 and come in to see me 8:45? Its disrespectful.

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u/schu2470 19h ago edited 19h ago

My obgyn was not at all connected to a hospital. It was a strip mall.

Your doc likely wasn't lying. The clinic might have been in a strip mall but the clinic or the doc would have been affiliated with a hospital in order for them to have admitting and practice privileges to see patients and deliver babies in the hospital. A truly independent doc wouldn't have the ability to admit you to a hospital, see you in said hospital, or deliver your baby in said hospital and would need to rely on you being taken care of by some other doc at the hospital or you'd have needed to go deliver at a private birthing center and therefore they'd be checking in on their patients at the birthing center.

Edit: downvote all you want. Doesn't change the fact your doctor wasn't lying to you. You just don't understand how clinics, hospitals, and affiliations and practice privileges work.

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u/Neat_Accident25 18h ago

Some doctors work at the general hospital along with running their own clinic. So they usually do shifts at the hospital. It’s good for transparency of medical records when they have patients running in between emergency room visits and regular check ups with them. Doctors don’t make a lot of money when you factor in their education cost so they tend to work long hours. I don’t know the reasoning behind your doctor, but it’s a possibility that one of their patients went to the emergency room in the middle of the night.

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u/No-Bus-7986 3h ago

A doctor could work 20 hours a day and still not be caught up.

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u/bohoinparadise 1d ago

I had that happen to be during a consultation appointment for knee surgery. Like I get that surgeons are busy. But if you make me wait 2 hours without a heads up from the front desk or nurse that you’re running behind, I will never trust you to cut into my body.

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u/Average_Sage 1d ago

Yes please communicate doctors. Shit happens I totally understand, but at least let me know what I'm getting into because if you think you are backed up a few hours I'm probably just going to go do something else or reschedule. Nbd. It's amazing how far a little communication goes

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u/BigCopperPipe 1d ago

One of those office staff you see before the doctor came in dressed like a doctor and spoke to me like a doctor and asked if my pharmacy is still the same. i asked “ok we good?” “yes” i walked out and went home, 30 minutes later the office called all crazy that i left, i explained what happened and i wouldn’t come back, so the doctor was furious and did an over the phone office visit, it was just for a refill but i assume the dude who wanted to play doctor got a ripping.

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u/Cool-Jacket-9837 1d ago

That’s genuinely crazy

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u/PlusInstruction8857 1d ago

Went to an urgent care once for my son who we thought broke his leg. We sat there for an hour and a half and legit almost left. The part that bugged me the most is the complete lack of communication. I would peek out and there were dozens of people walking around but theyd all look at me like I'm an alien and say nothing.

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u/Cool-Jacket-9837 1d ago

This exactly. I’d try to make eye contact and show that I just wanted to ask a question and got the complete cold shoulder. I was frustrated and missing out on work so I just dipped, but my situation wasn’t an emergency. I’m glad your son was seen even tho it took forever

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u/bolean3d2 1d ago

I checked myself out of an urgent care once after waiting for an hour for the doc to look at an X-ray of my hand. I get it docs are busy and get behind but I’m also busy, just tell me I need to come back later or you’ll call me with the results. Don’t ghost us while we’re in the office!

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u/PeaceSoft 1d ago

I have a suspicion that ERs don't know how to handle pain since the opioid epidemic

Triage will send you straight to the ER on the basis that you are visibly in pain. Severed leg? Dying of sepsis? Toothache and the dentist can't see you til monday? Pharmacy was late with the refill? All goes in the same bin

So you sit in the ER for 2 hours, or 8 hours, in gutting pain, waiting for them to run out of actual emergencies so that someone can take five seconds to write you a scrip. Not literally five seconds, because they have to interrogate you to prove to their satisfaction you're not THAT kind of medication-seeking

That'll be five hundred dollars, hope the pharmacy's still open lol

Was it always like this, or has something changed? i really don't know

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u/BackupScraps 22h ago

This happened to me around 2005, I was 18-19 yrs old. Pinched nerve probably from my physically demanding job and bad posture and maybe also from my scoliosis? Sobbing in pain for 8+ hours. Was given a damn tylenol maybe 2 hours in. They gave me a script for a muscle relaxant and naproxen. Asked me to pay $500 before I headed out and like an idiot I did. Should’ve let them eat it. Then later came the doctor’s bill in the mail cause for some reason this is allowed. 

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u/Gmschaafs 1d ago

That happened to me the other day. I flat out left.

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u/bboobbear 1d ago

Yeah, I’m leaving if I have to wait over 30 minutes. My time is just a valuable.

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u/Cool-Jacket-9837 1d ago

I’ll definitely give some wiggle room because I have worked in a clinic myself and understand that they get behind due to other patients; but just sitting in an empty patient room for so long without anybody popping in for a mere sec drove me bonkers

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u/debbilsavocado 1d ago

I don’t blame you at all. 2 hours is so disrespectful of your time and they all know they wouldn’t tolerate a patient being 2 hours late. I don’t understand why communication and timeliness is so uncommon at the doctors nowadays

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u/Bull_Moose1901 1d ago

Wouldn't be surprised if you got charged a no show fee after that.

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u/Cool-Jacket-9837 1d ago

I took care of it with billing.

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u/the-erebus- 19h ago

i’ve left after 45 minutes. my ass i’m staying there a full hour.

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u/jillvalenti3 3h ago

They’d send me a bill for $50 for a missed appointment

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u/uncalcoco 1d ago

But literally their time is more valuable than the average patient’s time. And it can be quantified.

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u/-nutz 1d ago

Well that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t show any respect for their patients time.

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u/JWARRIOR1 1d ago

it takes a whopping 30 seconds for someone to pop their head in the room and say "sorry for the delay, were backed up a bit we didnt forget about you. we will get to you as soon as we can"

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u/AfterEagle 1d ago

How does that justify poor communication to the patients that they have to wait?

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u/Front_Yoghurt4197 1d ago

Their time CAN be more valuable to certain people. Their time isn’t more valuable overall.

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u/uncalcoco 1d ago

Can you read? I said more valuable than the average persons time.

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u/Front_Yoghurt4197 1d ago

Can you read? I said no. 😂😂😂

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u/schu2470 1d ago edited 23h ago

You're making an appointment to see them. If your time was just as or more valuable than the doctor's time they'd be making an appointment based on your schedule and meeting at your place of employment or home.

Also, things happen. Emergencies happen. Patients come in for 1 thing and spend their whole visit talking about other stuff or they mention something like chest pain or fainting as the appointment is wrapping up. Happens every day. Chill. If you're that worried about it go ask a nurse what's going on. Don't just sit in the exam room getting pissed off.

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u/Front_Yoghurt4197 23h ago

I’m not OP 😅😅

And also, when you’re making an appointment, it is based off their schedule and your schedule, not just theirs 😅

I don’t believe their time is more valuable than the average person. We have people who are teaching the future generations. Professors who are teaching their parents so they can support their children. Truck drivers/train conductors who are bringing goods around the country for us. Surgeons actively saving lives. OBs bring life into the world. Car mechanics fixing our vehicles so we can go about our busy lives.

I think it takes everybody, altogether as a whole. All of our time is important and valuable, if you don’t believe that yours is, then that’s a youth thing honey 😉

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u/edophx 1d ago

it's a for profit business in the US, your time is worthless without customers.