Let’s talk about the elephant in the room…running late.
It is unbelievably frustrating when you have been sitting in a waiting or treatment room for 45 minutes waiting for your provider, yet if you’re 10-15 minutes later for your appointment, you are asked to reschedule. It doesn’t feel fair, and in some cases it may not be. I wanted to take a moment to break this down a bit today from both the perspective of a patient and of a doctor. This blog is not intended to make excuses versus encouraging all to give each other grace as we navigate the insanity that is healthcare today.
In my schedule, if someone is 10 minutes late it has a cascading effect making everyone else after them late as well. If I am running behind, I realize it can cause frustration and feel as though a patient’s time is not being valued the way that it should be. Let’s pull back the curtain a bit. Last night I had a patient with something they were very concerned about and very embarrassed to share. This conversation lead to me encouraging the patient to get additional imaging and to even consider change my course of care with the patient. It put me behind, so I spent the rest of the evening doing my best to catch up. It wasn’t in an attempt to simply rush people – I know that my staff has families they want to get home to and I always do my best to try and get them out on time as well.
As a provider, if a patient has something new or additional they need to discuss with me, my heart leads me towards giving them that extra time. When I find myself in the weeds afterwards, it absolutely makes things a bit more frantic, but I do like to think that if you were the patient needing a bit more of my time that I would be kind enough and able to give it to you.
As a patient, I have been that person sitting in the waiting or treatment room for upwards of 45 minutes. It is exhausting and frustrating and is one of the reasons I am constantly doing my best to run as close to on time as possible. My desire is that my patients are being seen at or close to their scheduled appointment time. This is why we do ask that patients reschedule if they are late, and why as a patient I always do my best to be 10 minutes or so early for appointments.
“When I feel myself getting frustrated as a patient, I always try to remember that there may be someone much worse off than I am that needs that time… and that I could be that person next time. It isn’t easy and I am not perfect because I value my time immensely.”
