Doctors: Power Trips R Us

[jarbabyj]

A short short background: last year I went into the hospital in order to detox off of painkillers, that I'd become addicted to after using them for seven years for chronic pain. My doctor during this time was great help in expediting my back surgery with the insurance companies and prescribing me Suboxone, a maintenance detox drug that staves off

Comments

[wouldyoueva]

My ortho pulls this crap, too. I'm tempted to start billing them at my consultant rate for the time I spend waiting.

People who work in doctor's offices are going to scream when they read this but I start getting assertive about the wait after about 15 minutes, especially if it's the first appointment of the day. Obviously, that didn't work for me, but I do think it's important to push back on this behavior.

[sorcha76]

I did actually start to push back at my GP's office after being kept for ridiculously long waits at every appointment. The breaking point was when I waited for two hours, was taken into the exam room, waited 45 minutes, dr came in and told me to get undressed, left the room, and left me sitting there for ANOTHER 45 minutes. By the time he came back, I was fully clothed again, and LIVID. I told him I had already lost more than 1/2 day of pay because of his poor scheduling.

I then followed up, in writing, that while it's understandable you might be kept waiting because of rounds, emergencies, or whatever, keeping people sitting for as long as I did was unacceptable - at the very least his staff could have said "Dr. X is running at least an hour behind today - are you able to wait, or would you like to reschedule?"

I went back to the guy once, but then realized he was an ass regardless, and found a new GP.

[enogitna]

I always get the first appt. of the day, too, whenever possible! For that same reason. It sucks it didn't work out this time.

My OB is often running late to my first-thing appointments but it's usually because she's been delivering babies so I cut her some slack, lol.

[mymaninthemoon]

It is maddening, but if he was at rounds at the hospital and things ran long, or he had to make some calls etc - that could be why he's running late. Lab work results that needed immediate attention could have come in as well.

[niira]

I used to work for doctors that would be constantly 30-50 minutes late, sometimes almost 2 hours late. Some of the reasons? "I was asleep, you woke me up.", "I was at the gym.", "I was doing laundry.". Used to drive me insane, because we'd be grumpy, the patients having to wait would be even grumpier. The doctors never thought a thing about it.

Or, if they're on time? They're probably in their office looking at music videos on youtube. *headdesk*

[damsel_ophelia]

How's this for a perfect storm...a doctor being late for work because his OWN doctor was running late for the first appointment!

[necromanticize]

My mother went to see an orthopedic surgeon in the summer (who we have discovered, are often arrogant assholes) and took me with. We waited for about twenty minutes for my mother to get called, and she went in and spoke to the nurse while I sat in the waiting room. The nurse spoke to her for maybe 10 minutes or less, and proceeded to leave my mother in the room for TWO HOURS before the doctor came. No one came to tell her he was coming soon or anything. And when he did come, he was a jerk and said he couldn't see her cuz he was sick, and then got upset with her because she didn't bring her two year old MRI.
Dude, if you're sick and don't want to be near patients...um...don't come into work? Or at least tell your patients so you don't make them sit there forever. Ugh.

So yeah, it's frustrating. And I wasn't even the one with the appointment!