Mildly Infuriating

in civilised countries this is a good idea as patients have a nasty habit of not turning up

Some doctors are always late. Some are occasionally late. Some are only late at the end of their shift. If yours is always late and cancels your appointment unless you show up early, they don't respect your time. Get a new doctor. Their front desk should be able to cope with you showing up near your real appointment time.

The doctors that are late to the appointment are late because they are taking the extra time to listen to and treat their patients. Private equity firms have standardized back to back appointments of 15 minutes for every patient, and enforce that every slot be filled. It is not possible to provide adequate healthcare in that timeframe. Every good doctor I've worked with is always on time to the first appointment, and later and later as the day goes on. Every scum bag doctor I've worked with was on time to every appointment, and never really treated a single patient. Be mad at private equity, not the doctors doing a good job.

Found Larry David’s Lemmy account

I’ve had the same observation before. They insist you’re there early, and don’t really care if they make you wait an hour or more past your appointment time. But if you’re there 5 minutes late? Appointment canceled, pay $50.

Let's be honest, when was the last time anyone actually saw a doctor when they were scheduled to?

Kind of wish we could walk out and send them a "cancelled appointment fee" after 15 minutes.

I give them 5 minutes unless there's an emergency, then it's 15. After that I reschedule, or move to a different doctor.

Any practice that can't keep a schedule, isn't worth working with. Worst case scenario, take a vacation to Mexico and talk to a doctor there. Cheaper, faster, and probably better care than a US general practitioner.

I've recently had several appointments with a specialist. Most of them required me to show up between 0615 and 0630.

He doesn't come in until 0800.

Had a doc that was chronically late. One day he shows up after the nurse had us sit in the room for about 40 mins and during the appointment all this water comes out of his nose. Said he likes to go for a swim during his lunch break.

First, YSK that doctors' offices overbook patients. Most of the time, the doctor takes less time with you than he schedules. He's got a lot of people to help (and money to make). But if he's not helping you, he's not your doctor and it's time to find another one. If he checks you out, gives you a prescription, and sends you on your merry way and it works, don't feel dismissed, he did his job efficiently.

People who break appointments cost the office money, so I get where they're coming from. It's still bullshit. If there were more doctors, the load would be spread more evenly and they wouldn't do that, but there aren't (in many areas) so that's what you get. Not that it's fair.

One time, my wife waited 4 hours to be seen by her doctor. I waited for an hour with her, then I started feeling unwell, so I walked home (only about a 20 minute walk, and the breeze felt awesome). She was there from 9 until noon, when they went to lunch. They all went out to eat at a nice restaurant while my wife waited. When they got back an hour later, they saw her. I thought that was messed up. But my wife likes her doctor and stayed with the practice. Couldn't be me. I give it half an hour tops.

As for me, I usually arrive at appointments five minutes early to on time. Usually have to wait no more than 15 minutes. AirPods are great for this. "But what if they call your name?" iPhone has a feature where it will listen for your name. You don't even have to look at them. The music dips, you hear a ding, you look at the phone, and it says "Urgent message: Maybe heard (your name)." You have to tell it your first name, your last name, and anything else you want it to listen for. This also eats battery because it's listening constantly — this is something you would not leave on all the time. But, I figure everyone's got a charger in the car, so it's no big deal. As for Android users... there might be an app for it. I dunno. Android absolutely wins when it comes to customisation of the home screen, but iPhone wins on accessibility features. There are, like, hundreds in there. One I use (and it came in clutch after having some oral surgery) is personal voice, where you can make it talk for you in your voice. It's a parlour trick until you need it, then it's indispensable.