Wait … wait! The doctor will see you … sometime

Freelance writer Joel Cohen reflects on a New York Times blog about the frustration of finding that your doctor is overbooked, and that although you arrived in plenty of time for your appointment, you’re going to have to wait–quite a while–to get in to see him.

Occasionally, the excuse given is that the doctor likes to give each patient all the time necessary. Fair enough; but then why not schedule the next patient for half an hour later?

Of course, we wouldn’t want him to do that if we’re the “next patient.” We’re typically willing to wait because we know that if we don’t, we’ll just have to wait longer to get another appointment and then wait again.

Evan Falchuk, a blogger over at Health Care Blog who commented on Cohen’s post, points out another drawback of a doctor who overbooks:

A typical doctor sees thirty patients a day. Some see even more.
Reflect on that math. If your doctor sees 30 patients a day, that’s 150 a week, 600 a month, maybe 7,000 a year.
It means that if it’s been even two months since you last saw your doctor, he has probably seen more than a thousand people since your last visit. It’s why there’s often that moment of disconnect when you see your doctor. You’re living every day with the fears and anxieties of your medical condition, but your doctor can’t quite place which one of the worried patients you are. So you have to remind him why he ordered that extra test a few months ago, why you switched medications the last time you were there, how he already ruled out that possibility the last time he saw you.

I personally have little to complain about, other than I don’t have enough time to peruse the magazines in the waiting room before the nurse is coming to get me for my appointment. I have a young(er) general practice doctor who hasn’t built up an unmanageable clientele (yet), and whose memory is good enough that he not only remembers who I am but also what’s been going on with my life and other matters that aren’t typically charted.

But I have experienced the same frustration mentioned above at various types of doctors’ offices, especially specialists’. First there’s the wait in the waiting room, then there’s the wait in the exam room. It’s one thing to deal with if it’s just you. It’s quite another if you’ve got a young family in tow and need to keep toddlers occupied, or at least keep them from dismantling the reception desk.

And, if the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act stays intact with the individual mandate, things will only get worse. Forget about long wait times in the waiting room. We’ve seen that in Massachusetts, where an individual mandate has been in effect for a few years, that waiting times just to get appointments have increased for people wanting to see a doctor.

Maybe it’s all sent by God so we’ll develop the fruit of patience.