Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Friday, November 09, 2012

What frosts my pumpkin

And probably yours too. Yesterday, I had to take the day off from work to drive my mother to an appointment with a specialist physician. (Everything turned out okay.) They told her that her appointment with the doctor was at 3:00, but she should arrive at 2:30 to do all the paperwork. (So why can't they just say, "Your appointment is at 2:30"?)

So we got there at 2:30, she filled out the questionnaires, and at 3:00, they called her in to the examining suite. I then waited for 2 1/2 hours, until she finally emerged at 5:30. What the heck was going on? Answer: They did some tests, then she waited for the doctor for an hour and 40 minutes.

Now, this is a specialist. He comes to this clinic once a week, and sees only scheduled patients. He deals with no emergencies. When they book the day, they know every patient who is coming, why that person is coming, and what they are likely to have to do with that person. There is no good reason why they cannot see a person at 3:00 who is scheduled to be seen at 3:00.

The reason this happens is because of arrogance and a total lack of respect and consideration for patients. No other service industry could possibly get away with this.

We're going to fix it.

1 comment:

roger said...

half an hour for paperwork?

arrogance is too mild a word to describe such behavior.

i walked out of my FORMER dr's waiting room after sitting for 20 mins past my appt.... to be then informed that it would be another half hour at least.

no consideration for the paying customers.