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- kim nakahodo - Profile | Pictures | Blog
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On Friday, I took Niko to the doctor for his two-year check up. When I checked in and the receptionist handed me a piece of paper and asked me to sign it. I told her that I would read it over and give it back to her. She looked at me for a second then said that was alright. I guess she wasn’t used to people reading over her form first.
The form was pretty text heavy, but pretty much said that as of July 1, the office would charge a $25 fee for late or missed appointments. After four “violations” you would be dismissed from the practice.
I’m sure this is becoming common practice, but talk about a customer service turn-off. I read the rest of the form and signed at the bottom, it’s not like I really have a choice.
After reading all of the magazines in the waiting room and prying Niko off the walls, our name is finally called to go into the exam room. Our appointment was for 10:30 a.m. and it’s now 11:15 a.m.
I get Niko into the exam room and he’s climbing all over the place. The nurse comes in and takes all her information then we wait for another 30 minutes for the doctor to come in.
We have been at the doctor’s office for almost an hour and a half and we are just now seeing the doctor. (Time check, 11:55 a.m.) I understand that she is very busy, but I guess that form I signed earlier is just making rubbing me the wrong way by now.
If I had shown up for the REAL time I would have seen the doctor, I would have been charged $25 on top of my co-pay. What kind of garbage is that?
By the time we get out of the doctor’s office two hours had passed.
As I pull out of the driveway I wondered if I should draft a similar form to the one I had to sign that morning. My time is just as valuable as the doctor’s time. I make it a point to be on time for all of my appointments so when the other party (doctor) can’t make our agreed appointment time then don’t I deserve a $25 credit on my account?
Anyone else rubbed the wrong way by these kind of forms and late appointment times?
Yep. Typed one. Took it to the always "late" (but sorry) doc. Surprised her when she read it. Suprised me when she signed it. It worked. 15 min. grace period of appointment time or she credits the account the same late fee. Go for it.I stick ask the receptionist how far behind they are if I wait more than 10 minutes (in fact a sign in the waiting room says to check with the receptionist if you have been waiting more than 10 min), stick my head out the exam room door, grab a nurse to see what the hold up is and usually say something to the doctor. I highly doubt any doctor is going to sign a late agreement for you but at least you can let them continually know you are still waiting and are not pleased. I will also sometimes remind them that I am on my lunch hour, on my way to work and i don't have a ton of time to wait.Our pediactrician allows us to cancel a sick appointment if a child doesn't need to go (sometimes my children make some "miraculous" recoveries". But a couple of the doctors charge a whole visit if you don't cancel within 24 hours. I like our orthodontist though...they want you to cancel if you are sick. So they don't charge anything. They are happy to reschedule. The last time we were at our pediatrician the appointment went beyond our arrival time and I wasn't thrilled. But, except to leave and go somewhere else, what do you do?First off, I get as annoyed as anyone else when I have a long wait at the doctor's office, particularly if I'm there w/ kids. This is going to make me unpopular, but so be it. I work for a large group of clinics and I'll give you just a few reasons why doctors run late. Patients often don't show up on time, throwing the whole morning or afternoon off. Or they schedule an appointment for an ear infection and then bring up five other concerns once they're in a room. You have every right to do that but if you let the person scheduling your appt know of the multiple issues up front, they can allow more time for your appt. Patients are often insistent about seeing their own doctor and the doctor's schedule may be full, but if the patient doesn't want to see the on-call doctor or wait until another day, they'll work the patients in either by double booking somewhere or working into their lunch break or the end of their day. This is often the case with young children or patients with chronic or serious health issues; I've rarely seen them put a child off until another day or send them to a walk-in facility. Doctors, particularly primary care doctors, get frequent calls from specialists offices when the specialist wants more details as to why a patient has been referred to them. They also get calls from the ER when a patient has shown up there and they need more information. Several of the family practice doctors I work for deliver babies. Needless to say, they get called out to run to the hospital for a delivery from time to time. Children can be uncooperative patients when they're not feeling well or are fearful - anticipating immunizations - and that can take extra time as well. Doctors take their jobs and their patients' health concerns as seriously as their patients do. It's in no one's best interest for them to rush from room to room w/o a thought just in the interest of staying right on schedule. Sometimes a patient comes in with what they think is shoulder and arm pain and ends up needing an EKG, bloodwork, a chest xray, and a referral to the ER. Never assume you know what's gone on before you got there or in the other patient rooms. That said, I think it's ridiculous to charge people for being late or not showing up. We send a letter to no-shows and we have fired chronic patients for chronically not showing up. If someone is more than 15 minutes late, the doctor or his nurse makes the call on whether or not to still see them, but 99% of the time they still do. Which, unfortunately, has ramifications on how far behind he/she might be running. I love it that the doctor agreed to sign that form, though. Some doctors have the luxury of setting up their schedule so that every appt is given half an hour, but not many. Most run on 10-20 minutes appointments. Probably shouldn't be that way, but that's the nature of healthcare these days.I love your idea. That is incredibly aggravating, and I've been scolded at check-in for being 5 or 10 minutes late, then had to wait an hour for the doctor. Mygr8 makes some very good points, however, part of the problem is a function of staffing; many clinics, especially the larger busy ones, need more providers. A mid-level practitioner (such as a PA or ARNP) whose role is specifically to alleviate some of the "overflow" would help alleviate many of those problems. I'm sure most clinics are reluctant because of the cost, which one would think would be easily offset by increased efficiency. Mid-level providers are (usually) great, especially nurse-practitioners, who, having been nurses, are trained to actually care for patients. In any event, you do have a choice: You can always find another doctor.I do understand the frustration and it use to really bug me. Then I was the cause of a doctor being late. I had to have emergency surgery one morning. I had the doctor with me in the operating room for a couple hours. The doctors don't run late just to annoy their patients. There is (usually) a really good reason and a real person in need behind the hold up.I have to totally agree with mamalackey and epv5 on this one. I really don't mind all that much when my doc is running late b/c that tells me that if I should unexpectedly need his extra time at some point, I will most likely get it, too (and I have, actually, at pediatrician, at my regular doc, and at my eye doctor). I don't know if I really understand the $25 "fine" for being late, but I totally get being charged $25 for not showing up. You don't show up for your appointment and that doc misses out on that pay, when if you'd taken the time to cancel, they could have filled the open slot. That said, if your doc is chronically late and it annoys you, go find another doc.83hwy - Beyond telling you that the doctor is running behind, almost anything is a HIPAA violation. Also, unless the doc is clearly behind and going to stay that way for half the day (and we do typically tell people that), it's nearly impossible to predict what is going to make him/her behind or keep them behind. Again, unless you're in the room w/ the patient, you don't know what's going on in there that might make what seemed like a simple appt turn into a more complicated one. Likewise, he/she might be an hour and a half behind and then have 3 or 4 quickie appts in a row and get caught back up. My point is just that doctors (most) are aware that your time is valuable and do feel badly when they are running behind, but they have to meet the needs of their patients, and that includes you. If it hasn't happened yet, there will at some point be a time when you or one of your loved ones needs to be "worked in" to a full schedule or come in for something that seems easy (a 15 minute appt, for instance) and turns into something that takes up quite a bit more time.mygr8crew hit the nail on the head. The only addition I have to her comment is the people who have an appointment for 1 person/child but bring an addtional person/child to have seen-or more in some cases. We will gladly accomodate the addtions if we are given a 'heads up' about the additional person(s). Whether it's to avoid addtional expense, ie co-pay,( which by the way is a violation of the aggreement you have with your insurance company), or whatever the reason, if we do this ONCE a day it effectively puts us behind at least 10-15minutes. Throw in a phone call from the ER, a phone call TO a specialist about someone in the office needing attention by a specialist, for example a child with chronic ear infections who needs to see an ENT as soon as possible, leavinging to deliver a baby, cast a childs broken arm, heaven forbid an ambulance transport to the ER....we can & do run behind. I just hope that we don't see the day here in the U.S., when people have to wait for their health care like people do in other countries. That may make everyone appreciate the 1-2 hours spent at the doctors office.I have been so lucky to have a medical group that is on top of scheduling. MY PCP is nearly always on time within 10 minutes. My daughter's pediatrician is the same. There have been two times in 4 years that their office was WAY behind. Both were during the worst of the flu season and the doc was apologetic for the 45 minute wait. The nurse did come in to let us know that we were not forgotten both times which made me feel like I was not forgotten. I always bring at least a book and a toy to keep my daughter occupied if we end up with a long wait.The last doctor I had was part of a "factory" clinic, and the schedulers were CONSTANTLY overbooking the doctors. I don't remember ever being told I'd be charged for late or missed appointments, but I wouldn't pay it even if I were. Just as it's not always the doctor's fault for lateness, sometimes it's not the patient's fault either. I once arrived at a dentist's office early for an appointment (I try to be early every time), and the receptionist told me AT THAT TIME that they were going to have to reschedule my appointment. What, they couldn't have called me at home maybe the day before or at least that morning before I left my house, so that I could have been on time to work? I pointed out to her that I was taking time off from work to be there, and said that if I had failed to show up they would have added a $25 charge to my account, and asked if they were going to credit me $25. She said in her most officious and irritating manner, "That's not how it works." I left, wrote the dentist a letter about this occurrence, informed him that his staff were rude to me and that this policy of charging but not crediting was bad policy and terribly not patient friendly, and found a new dentist. P.S., I found a new doctor as well, a sole practitioner who takes a lot of time for me but doesn't schedule patients every 15 minutes.I can say with utmost certainty that the schedulers were doing the doctors bidding if they were overbooking. Doctors make it very clear when they're not happy w/ something and they and their nurses keep a close eye on their schedules thruout the day. You were wise to find an office you were happier with. I HATE the charging people for not showing policy. Just got charged last week for completely forgetting about a dental appt. Yes, it's my fault we missed and I will pay for it because they could have been seeing someone else at that time, but we've been patients there for 15 years, longer if you count when I was under my parents insurance, and haven't missed before - a little grace, please?!Our practice doesn't make you pay for being late, but if you are more than 15 minutes late they do like you to reschedule. I still get irritated however, when I have to wait an hour past my appointment time to see the doctor. I do understand that they have phone calls to take, patients that take longer than others, ER calls, etc. I also understand my PCP is very popular, so I expect things to run a little behing. That said, I take issue with her partner's perpetual lateness, over booking, charging uninsured $215/ 15 minute appointments, and limited hours. It's ridiculous to only be open from 8-4 (closing even earlier on Fridays), and expect to be able to cram everyone in. I love my doctor (and even her partner) to death, so much so that it's not worth changing offices, but still...
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