January 14, 2010 – Waiting Room Woes

I’m kind of pissed off at the whole medical profession right now (for personal reasons) so today I am focusing my attention of them.  There is a lot I wish I could change about the whole doctor’s office experience, but there is only so much a Queen of the World can do.  Omnipotence only goes so far.  I can start things moving in a more patient friendly manner, however.  I will do that by focusing on one particular aspect of the doctor’s office visit (the wait) and see if I can’t make that better.

How long is an appropriate amount of time to wait at a doctor’s office when you have a scheduled appointment?  Ideally you would be waiting no more than ten minutes.  I say ideally because I’m not sure I have ever actually experienced that.  What is an unreasonable amount of time to wait?  I waited over an hour to see a doctor with a screaming colicky baby once.  That was unreasonable.  Doctors can’t always fully predict the amount of time each patient will take, and they can’t plan for all emergencies.  Some amount of waiting is to be expected.  When wait times get excessive and are routinely bad however, there is clearly a larger problem going on at that office, be it overbooking appointments, excessively chatty doctors, or allowing too many walk-ins.  From now on these offices will simply have to book fewer appointments in a day because…

Wait times at doctor’s offices must not exceed 30 minutes.  Surpassing this wait time will result in a $20 fee reduction for services rendered that day.  Extra $20 fee reductions will occur for every additional 15 minutes of wait time.  

One last important point.   This doesn’t mean that the nurse needs to get the patient into an examination room within 30 minutes; it means a doctor has to show up to that examination room within 30 minutes.  You can’t solve your over-booking problem with additional exam rooms. 

I realize this decision may make it harder to get appointments at certain offices, but it will also make the word “appointment” mean something again and I think that is more important.

As always I remain your all-powerful and benevolent Queen of the World,

Marisa