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I took a friend to the eye doctor on Tuesday and Wednesday for her eye surgery follow ups. It was a 2.5 hour wait to see the dr. on Tuesday. It was a 3 hour wait to see the dr. on Wednesday. I am angry that the dr. schedules patient appointments so inconsiderately for his patients that patients must wait for hours after their scheduled appointment time to see him.
I will be taking my friend to this doctor again tomorrow for another follow up visit. I expect the same 2.5-3 hour wait time on Friday.
Are multiple hour wait times for your scheduled appointment your experience with medical specialists? Is this the norm or is this doctor an anomaly? Such long wait times have not been my or the friends' experience, but neither I nor my friends have needed a specialist in a couple of years.
Last edited by texan2yankee; 04-11-2024 at 06:05 PM..
I don't generally wait for more than 1/2 hour, usually less, during my doctor appointments. It seems the providers I see make a concerted effort to stick to the schedule.
What we are seeing here, which would be expected to impact waiting times, is the continuing mass migration of people into the state (FL),
and their sheer numbers are overwhelming healthcare facilities and providers here. I've spoken to a number of providers here and they all say the same thing. They're working to increase the number of personnel and the capacity of their facilities to meet the demand, but it takes time to get there and they're being overwhelmed by the ever increasing numbers of people and their demands.
I once waited over an hour for a yearly checkup. Turned out the doctor and the PA were both down the hall with a patient who had a hairline fracture in their arm and was there in horrible pain. The emergency room had sent them home the day before with a splint.
I was annoyed, but I understood and waited.
The skin cancer doctor had me waiting over an hour once too, for a routine exam. Also annoying but the receptionist at least let me know it'd be awhile longer. That doctor needs to stop overbooking.
I was at a drs. office and was waiting for an hr past the appt tme. Routine test, so nothing emergent. I went out to the desk and said I was leaving. There must have been at least 4 women sitting or standing around and all of them looked at me shocked and said WHAT? Like no one had ever done it before and how could you possibly leave?? Easy, I told them, this was rude. They hemmed and hawed and got me in to see the Dr a few minutes later. The Dr then said to me, "So, I hear you want to divorce me". I was not amused. I never went back.
Did the same at a Chiro appt, last one for a treatment of a problem that had resolved, which wasn't really necessary but went anyway. I waited and waited and said I was leaving. Same shocked look on faces.
My primary dr does it a lot. You think when they call you back and you finally get into "the exam room", you're home free. No way... you can just sit there for another 30-60 min. The whole thing is just wrong.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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No, I've not had to wait that long normally. My wife was just complaining that she had to wait 20 minutes for her dental cleaning yesterday. I have 5 doctors that I see regularly 1-2 times a year, all but one specialists, and rarely wait more than 5-10 minutes. There was one time back about 2005, however, when I broke a bone in my hand at about 6am and went to the emergency room. After x-rays they decided that it would require a specialist hand surgeon, and he was booked all day. I had to sit there in the ER with only Tylenol until he was available at 7PM, 11 hours later. Of course that was understandable, 2.5-3 hours for a regular checkup is not.
My primary dr does it a lot. You think when they call you back and you finally get into "the exam room", you're home free. No way... you can just sit there for another 30-60 min. The whole thing is just wrong.
I really hate this "trick" they pull to stop you from leaving. One time the second wait in the exam room for the urologist took so long I did leave anyway.
At an ophthalmologist once the wait was so long, people from the appt after mine were showing up. So I offered to come back the next day, and they took me up on it.
My big issue lately is scheduling appts. They seem to be 6 months out or more nowadays.
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