What is it with Doctors

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inkjunkie

inkjunkie

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Had an appointment yesterday. We live about 45 miles from her office, and with the recent snow I gave us an extra 20 minutes or so. Well, we got stuck in traffic thanks to some bonehead driving off the road and up an embankment. No fire, body parts laying around or nothing. But of course all the lookie-lous have to creep by. GPS put our arrival time 15 minutes late after clearing the accidient site (also got stuck behind a few pokes before the accidnet that would not go over 15 m.p.h.). So wife calls them and tells them we will be late, and they tell her don't bother showing up because they will not see us if we are late. Last time I was there my appointment time was 2:00 and she did not see me until almost 2:45, and that was ok. F'em.......stopped at my other Docs office and they had an opening with the one Doc I like. Instead of begging with the other Doc for enough pain killers to knock the pain down just a notch this guy gave me, just like last time, enough to do the job of pain relief.
 
yeah doctors are like used car salesman hard to fallow and..........

no offence to annyone there are some good car salesman out there :p

i used this comparison from an experience i had a few years back went to used car lot to inquire about a 1995 chrysler seabring for sale there (quoting the salesmen words be4 i decided to leave) : yeah this car was very well looked after an older woman bought the car new as a matter a fact she was a blind lady
 
One doc that I used to see was the same way.

The last time I saw him, I got there 20 minutes early, had to wait an hour just to get into an exam room and then wait 1/2 hour for him to show his face. I knew it was going to happen so I handed him a bill for 1 hour of my time. He had that puzzled look on his face and I reminded him that my time is also valueable and waiting past my appt. time has cost me $ 27.50 in lost wages. Since he had the 'don't be late for any reason' policy, I thought fair is fair.
He was not amused so I asked him to recommend another dr. for me to see that did not have the same idiot policy as his.
...if I am late and call, slide the next patient in and I will not mind waiting.
 
Just like everything else, it's all about the money. I can't remember the last time I went to a doctor where I didn't feel like I was being "processed" rather than treated. My wife's orthopedic doc typically has a minimum 1 hr delay which gets longer as the day progresses, unless you're the first patient, then it's only a 20 minute delay.
 
I don't know what y'all are bîtching about. This is obviously how the glorious invisible hand of the free market has decided it should be.

(Yes, for the interpretationally-challenged, I am being snarky and sarcastic)
 
slantsixdan said:
I don't know what y'all are bîtching about. This is obviously how the glorious invisible hand of the free market has decided it should be.

(Yes, for the interpretationally-challenged, I am being snarky and sarcastic)
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Yeh! Well we hear a few stories from your side of the border too, ya know. From the ones that "come down here" looking for service they can't get up there
 
I run a pinstriping service where one calls and I show up at the time expected for the appointment and do my job, in the 40 or so years I've been doing this service I can honestly say I have never been late and if the shop is not ready, I charge them a minimum of $25. fee and reschedule their appointment.

Last time I was at the doctors office before I changed doctor's, I waited almost a 1/2 hour till I got up and went to the window where the receptionist was and told her I was leaving because they hadn't kept their appointment with me and I would be sending a bill to them to pay for my time and after a short one way conversation on her part, reminded her of their policies and explained that if it was not paid my lawyers would take them to court as my time is just as important as they believe their time is to them. Bottom line: she shrugged it off said leave, I spoke with my lawyer, he sent a bill for a C note, I got paid and now have a new doctor
 
When my wife was pregnant with our first she waited 2 hours past her appointment time before asking what the hold up was. The nurse told here that the Doctor had been called to the hospital and wouldn't be back. She was a little PO when she got home.
 
It varies from state to state but the typical physician spends SO much on malpractice insurance, he or she has no choice but to see as many patients per day as possible to remain profitable. Yes they earn a good living - they deserve to as any skilled professional does. The real irony is that with the limited time they spend with patients, the more likely (I imagine) it becomes to make a mistake. More mistakes - more litigation, and higher premiums. Quite a vicious circle.
 
67Dart273 said:
Yeh! Well we hear a few stories from your side of the border too, ya know. From the ones that "come down here" looking for service they can't get up there
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Americans mostly get a very grossly distorted picture of the system in Canada. We don't have socialized healthcare like they do in the UK and in other countries. What we have is no more or less than public health insurance administered at the provincial level with a system of reciprocal recognition among all the provinces so if you're travelling out of province, your home-province health card is accepted in other provinces. The reason why some Canadians go to the States for some medical procedures, however, has nothing to do with that. It's because Canada is a giant, sparsely-populated country. That is, it is a small market spread out across an enormous land mass. And over 90% of Canada's population lives within 200km (120 miles) of the U.S. border. And the U.S. is a much larger, much denser market. Larger, denser markets pay back investments in equipment and personnel much faster than smaller, sparser markets, so naturally there's more equipment and more personnel in the U.S. And that is why some tests and procedures are easier and/or quicker to get in the States than in Canada. It would be the same even if the insurance situation were reversed (public insurance in the US, private in Canada). It would be the same if Canada had UK-style socialised medicine. It would be the same if the US had Cuban-style socialised medicine. The two issues (market size, insurance/care model) are wholly separate, but because the information Americans get is spotty and often politicised, most Americans don't know any better than to conflate them.

I feel fairly qualified to comment, being a dual citizen and having more extensive experience than I'd like with both systems.
 
If you guys all think waiting for 1/2 to 45 minutes to see a doctor is bad now.....Wait till the obama health care plan is kicking in. here is a 6 minute video that ALL americans should see.
p://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HnkxIh62dQ
 
Now I'm as red blooded, white bread, apple pie American as they come. But when the right wingers open with that "Hussein" stuff to stir up sentiment, versus simply using facts and logic, it kind of puts me off. I find it humorous in the context of political humor. When used in campaigning, it shows the candidate's lack of faith in the citizen's ability to grasp the issue. It's the reason I choose to remain unaffiliated, rather than side with the "lesser of two evil's" political party. It's real easy to say "I'll quit when that day comes," but paychecks are pretty compelling, too.

That said, I agree that things can only get worse with Obama care.
 
My doc is pretty good actually although he has been around for 38 years, he is scaling back how many patients he sees in a day. My ***-clown ex took my oldest boy Garrett to his appt and dropped him off. Once she dropped him off, he left as he was and is scared about the results. So basically he ditched his appt. I called them to let them know what happened and the receptionist was understanding. Got him in asap and this time I took him and went with him like a parent is supposed to. Rant over...no wait it's not cuz the ***-clown is still alive!!
 
412 Stroker said:
If you guys all think waiting for 1/2 to 45 minutes to see a doctor is bad now.....Wait till the obama health care plan is kicking in. here is a 6 minute video that ALL americans should see.
p://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HnkxIh62dQ
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The changeover to computerized medical records is already slowing things down. I went to my doctor this week, they had signs everywhere saying the visit would take longer. My doctor told me straight-up it is not a better system. Most of the time I was with him, he was standing in the corner at the computer....he said he feels like a data-entry clerk now, instead of a doctor talking to his patients.

The 'big' advantage of the new system is no more struggling to decipher the doctor's handwriting lol.
 
I waited a little over 8 hours once with an IV in my arm (even layed there through two shift changes) waiting on knee surgery, the doctor was called for an emergency surgery that was life threatning.....no big deal, we both lived.
 
the67fish said:
I waited a little over 8 hours once with an IV in my arm (even layed there through two shift changes) waiting on knee surgery, the doctor was called for an emergency surgery that was life threatning.....no big deal, we both lived.
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That's a real man's attitude. I'm sure it still sucked something awful. I'm not comfortable in a hospital even as a visitor.
 
This is something i can contribute to and sink my teeth in. Always been a pet peave with me about the way doctors treat prospective patience. I was in a situation waiting in the "Waiting room" for 45 min then finally called back into the room and there i sat for another 20 min. The doctor was 65 min late for an appointment. If you were to be late for an appointment on an interview they would not even give you the time of day. When the doctor finished i went out and as the nurse was filling out the bill i told her that her efforts were wasted as my waiting would offset the doctors effort. The doctor was standing there on his dictaphone and heard all of this. He ask where i was working and i informed him it was very close. He said they would call me when they had an opening. The next time i came in i reported to the window and was told to take a seat. I did so thinking, here we go again. My *** didn't hit the seat when they called me back. I went in and the doctor was there. He did his thing and i was out of there. The ladies in the waiting room ask me "Who do you know"? It's not who you know, it's how much bullshit will you put up with. I've always looked for the opportunity to fire a doctor when he was late and just challenge him to try and collect and we'd let a jury handle this matter. These turds get away with far too much crap because we let em. Shame on us.
Small Block
 
I had a follow-up appointment yesterday with a Dermatologist to check on some sun-damage spots. Appointment was at 11:30AM. I checked in at the desk at 11:26, sat down in the waiting room and haven't even opened the magazine when they called me in at 11:29. Sat down in the exam room and the doctor walked in right at 11:30, checked things out, and I was out the door and headed to my car by 11:35.
Never had an appointment with any doctor like that before and probably never will again. Must have just been my day.
 
All it takes is for 1 patient to be late , and the whole day's off exponentially from that point forward .

HMO's ( Half-assed Medical Operations ) compound these assembly-line office visits ; like Black Bomber said : "Vicious cycle" .

Personal care -- meaning : physician , dentist , et al. , knowing a patient and their family from day-one -- is a thing of the past . That's a true disservice to everybody ; no time to dedicate to diagnosis / prognosticate a patient's malady , which , as previously mentioned , can perpetuate a misdiagnosis and lead to potentially catastrophic mistakes .

I feel for these physicians , as they're in quite the quandry these days . They want to help people feel better / recover , but they have such an enormous amount of overhead these days ( HMO's take forever-and-a-day to pay ) , that they're *forced* to make-up for losses by seeing -- not attending -- as many people as possible ; 10 minute maximum with each patient (!!!) .

Government-run ( read : paid for by the working class ) health care is a joke !
These idiots we have in "charge" couldn't run diarrhea !!
 
LH23H2R said:
All it takes is for 1 patient to be late , and the whole day's off exponentially from that point forward .
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Not arguing this, but as I stated we had snow the night before and I seriously doubt that every patient was on time that day, we were probably the only one that called:toothy10::toothy10:
 
As an aside, I was speaking to a neurologist acquaintance last Sunday. He said that Medicare pays the same today for a particular test as it did in 1978.
 
FISHBREATH said:
As an aside, I was speaking to a neurologist acquaintance last Sunday. He said that Medicare pays the same today for a particular test as it did in 1978.
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Thank you for mentioning this . This same deal goes ( insurance wise ) for dental work : $1,000 / year allotment for all work ??
 
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