Doctor’s appointment scheduled at 9:00am, still waiting almost an hour later

[u/transfatpikachu]

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!

[u/drallafi]

Go hit up the receptionist. Your time is precious.

[u/Boredpanda19er → u/drallafi]

This; I fell asleep once while waiting because it took so long… Turns out someone put me in the wrong room and they thought I left already.

[u/mar__iguana → u/Boredpanda19er]

Similar-ish thing happened to me. I didn’t know the doctor portion was completely done because it was super quick and barely addressed anything. Then she mentioned something about “coming back”. It was so hard to get that appointment so I kept waiting.

After about an hour I started questioning my sanity about what she had said. Started panicking because my car was parked somewhere that it should’ve been moved by then.

They forgot I was still there and when I stepped out they said “oh you’re done for today well let you know if you have to come back”. It was such a demoralizing experience. To realize how much trouble and stress I went through, all for it to take around 3 minutes like OP and then leave feeling like a dumbass

[u/Germanshepmama99 → u/mar__iguana]

This happened to me recently. I went to the desk and was like am I done? Oh. Yea you’re all set. It used to be that the doctor spent 20 minutes with you and at the end of the visit was very clear about next steps, gave a printout and walked out into the hallway with you telling you to have a good day. You stopped at the desk on the way out to square up any bills or future appointments. Ever since everything is online now in these my chart portals it’s like communication has gone out the window. I fill out a pre check in checklist. Go over it with the nurse. Go over it with the Doctor. Have to ask for a printout. Want to schedule a follow up? Have to ask or they assume you’ll do it in myChart. Then I get like five surveys to rate my interaction with scheduling, with admin, with MyChart and with the Doctor. I do give critical feedback (which takes up my time which I guess isn’t valuable). Yet nothing changes it’s getting worse. Healthcare has gone to crap ever since Covid I swear.

[u/Habltual_Linestepper → u/Germanshepmama99]

On the other side of the equation...

Insurance (Medicare, private, all of them) only pays for 15 minutes per visit (including the time spent reviewing your case, charting, and writing orders), Medicare continues to reduce how much it pays for everything while simultaneously requiring more and more work from physicians (thus less income but more work = less medical assistants, nurses, receptionists, while also making them busier), Epic (charting system) is a shit fest and nobody likes any EMR on the market but the health organizations don't give a fuck because the EMR only exists to separate insurance companies from their money and nobody cares what the clinicians or patients actually need.

Oh, and those epic chat messages? A fucking scourge. Every day a couple hundred messages ranging from the ridiculous (can you order me this even though I don't want to come in for an appointment?), the obscene (hey doc, I know I haven't seen you in 5 years but can you order this refill for me?) the helpless (my CPAP is broken, can you come fix it?), the nonsense (I have this new symptom, can you diagnose it over text?), the lost (I have no idea what's going on but what should I do?)

Somewhere, buried in there, there's a couple worthwhile patient interactions.

But yeah, it has gone to complete shit. But once you look past the veil you'll see that it's even worse than you had imagined.

And then we wonder why nobody wants to go into the lowest paid, most thankless, most underappreciated specialty, aka, Primary Care, and why it takes 8 months just to get a new appointment.

[u/Germanshepmama99 → u/Habltual_Linestepper]

It’s so so sad and I worry cuz now I’m getting older I foresee I’ll need healthcare more frequently. I have some docs and nurses in my family and yes I see how stressed and overworked they are. Can we go back to the old days ever? I fear AI will be taking care of me when I’m old and senile.
https://giphy.com/gifs/lFeKAMNdm4DrVkRlUM

[u/Habltual_Linestepper → u/Germanshepmama99]

We'd have to dump insurance outright. Both Medicare and private insurance as they both contribute equally to the fuckery. Medicare saddles doctors with a truly obscene administrative burden while regularly fucking them in new and unique ways, and the privates are a hellscape of denials, prior authorizations, and mountains of unpaid bullshit.

This is obviously impossible (not literally, but in the "America would never" kind of way). So, honestly, if you can afford it I'd suggest maybe finding a private cash-only/subscription PCP. Yes is carries its own annoyances, and while it's not always ultra expensive it can still range from $100-400 a month, but it's the closest you'll ever get to having a doctor that works for you and isn't a slave to Medicare or Humana/UHC/Aetna/whoever.

Otherwise, maybe look into getting a private patient advocate or navigator (preferably one who is an experienced MD, PT, RT, RN, etc - I've always found non-medical ones to be less useful). Though again, only if you can afford it. But you can usually get one for about $150, then cheaper if ongoing. I genuinely can't describe how useful it can be to have someone working for you who can read your medical records, understand them, point you in the right direction, and speak to other medical professional on your behalf but as one of their peers.

Because, yeah, AI probably will be huge in the near future (my own hospital loves it). If not AI, then you'll probably get a poorly trained NP. Probably just reading from the AI. The future is bleak. The best advice I could give to anyone is simply to be prepared to take care of yourself.

[u/Germanshepmama99 → u/Habltual_Linestepper]

Thanks for the info! The patient advocate sounds like a definite win down the line should I have a greater ongoing need for healthcare. For now I’m sticking to an apple a day to keep the doctor away.