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

[hi_imnatalie]

I'm going to have to defend the doctor. They have to go vist places like the hospital, er, hospice ect. before they can go to "work". then they have to put the data in , sometimes it can take longer then they thought.

[coanteen]

Yeah, that's pretty bad. I can usually give good reasons for why it happens and why patients should be understanding, but if you're the first patient in and he's "on time" to the office, that's just plain bad. Maybe, maybe if some consultant called him (you can't really put those on hold), but if that happened it wouldn't last 45 min, and he should've explained and apologized.

Actually he should've apologized in any case. Doesn't sound like he did :(

Ugh, I hate doctor's offices.

[movingon_x]

That sucks! I don't even know a world where you don't have to wait at least 30-40 minutes past appointment time to actually get back there, though...but maybe I just go to a crappy office if that's not the norm.

I once waited in the tiny exam room for TWO HOURS for the doctor to finally come in...I was starting to lose it in there with no windows and a tiny, tiny space.

[eponinechakra]

I'm not sure if this is the case, but do doctors do a sort-of triage thing? I know at my doctor's office, each of the doors has this little set of flags in black, red and blue, and one is pushed out for each room, so I get the feeling he takes his patients in order of urgency.

When I go into the doctors office for paperwork or a refill meds, my doctor is often 45 minutes late, even if there are other patients in the office. But the days I've come in with horrible pain or a fever or any serious symptoms, he's there in five minutes or less. I could be off base here, but I always assumed that he's taking care of the more crucial patients first.

[niira]

Usually the flags I've run across in offices have to do with either the doctor (if there are multiple doctors working), what order they were put into the room (top is first, 2nd from the top is 2nd, etc), or what they're getting done (top and bottom flags in the last place I worked was "first patient in, nails").

But then again, I've never worked in a family practice or any sort of practice that deals with emergencies. I guess it varies for offices.

[occamshairbrush]

The network of clinics I go to has signs in their lobby saying if you've been waiting more than 20 minutes to notify the receptionist. Not sure how much it helps.