How long would you wait...

hollydolly said:
they don't ask us not to use the internet, just about everybody does... they used to ask for mobile phones to be turned off, but they don't any more, just as they don't on planes now either..
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WiFi passwords are posted all over hospitals/clinics and charging stations are everywhere including various chargers. OK Heart has grab boxes of forgotten chargers to take.
 

Here's the other side of the story. l found a doctor where l had to only wait about ten minutes to see the doctor. That was important because l had to go back to work. l finally found out how she did it. Every time you opened your mouth to ask a question, she'd cut you off. It didn't take long for me to say goodbye.
 
Since this thread has been resurrected, I am re-posting what I posted in May...

I used to go to a wonderful, caring doctor who was in practice with her father. I think most of their records were still in paper files. She had the bedside manner of an old-school doctor and would often ask me about my travels and my pets. She was delightful, but she never really went over my records in a concise manner. She would say things like "you are going to live to be 100 based on your results."

Most of her patients were elderly and infirm and simply wanted to chat, and because she spent so much time with them I would often wait an hour and a half after my appointment was scheduled.

One day I was sitting in a room waiting for her father because she was on vacation and heard him shooting the breeze with another patient in the next room when there were patients waiting in the lobby. After a 2 hour wait, I told the front desk I was done and would look for another doctor. Her assistant took me into a room and asked me to please stay with her as a patient. I was working at the time and told her my time was valuable and I was done.

I found another doctor who sees me on time. He is prompt and concise. Although we chat briefly about life because we are similar in age, he goes over the results of my physical in each category and simply tells me what is good and what I need to improve.

There is absolutely no reason to continue seeing a doctor that makes you wait for a considerable amount of time. "Fire" them, just as you would anyone who is inefficient or who doesn't respect your time.

This still holds true, even though I am no longer working.
 
Dave03 said:
A way I found to beat the system: Always book the first appointment after lunch. Dentist, doctor, whatever. I never have to wait more than 10 minutes or so.
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One time I insisted for the first appoint of the day at an aforementioned doctor's office figuring I'd be taken in right away. It was still almost an hour before I was called. If a doctor is that late getting started, it sets his whole schedule back forcing his client to wait that much longer.
 
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I wait no longer than 15 minutes most of the time to see my general practitioner. What I have to wait the longest for is to even get a dermatologist appointment - most are 4 months out. I had a bad cyst on my face a couple of months ago, and it was going to be 4 months to even get in. I bought some Benzoyl Peroxide, 10% and used it about a week, then it cleared, so I canceled the appointment.
 
debodun said:
One time I insisted for the first appoint of the day at an aforementioned doctor's office figuring I'd be taken in right away. It was still almost an hour before I was called. If a doctor is that late getting started, it sets his whole schedule back forcing his client to wait that much longer.
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yes it does.

Unfortunately can't be helped if the doctor does hospital rounds or is called out to see somebody in nursing home before getting to their surgery.
 
Look if ya not dead forget about it. You are Medicare and they don't want cha. Thas the bottom of it all.
Take your son in law, a lawyer wid you and you get in in 10 minutes even if its a RN testing your pulse.
In the early 80's Dr.s' had signs in offices, "not accepting Medicare" ! It ain't changed. Tell the Son in law to
String em up.

The Medical predicament of most elderly is that they are gonna be put thru hell.
 
papa tiger said:
Look if ya not dead forget about it. You are Medicare and they don't want cha. Thas the bottom of it all.
Take your son in law, a lawyer wid you and you get in in 10 minutes even if its a RN testing your pulse.
In the early 80's Dr.s' had signs in offices, "not accepting Medicare" ! It ain't changed. Tell the Son in law to
String em up.

The Medical predicament of most elderly is that they are gonna be put thru hell.
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We are doing just fine without attempting to head butt those who are helping us.
 
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gruntlabor said:
You might have allowed for that when you scheduled the appointment!

Doctors are underpaid for Medicare/Medicaid patients, so, "Let 'em wait, hopefully they won't be back anytime soon."
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I'm not commenting on your US Medicare/Medicaid system - however, no, one cant factor in things like doctors being called to nursing homes or how long hospital rounds will take - because these things are so variable. People don't conveniently die or have emergencies to schedule.
 
So far I haven't had to wait for perhaps 20 minutes, but my healthcare provider system, a not for profit one, was recently sold to a for profit company. They took "not for profit" to the extreme and dug themselves a 500 million dollar hole, so I'm expecting to see change and not for the good.
 
Della said:
No, she said she could see where she had erased it, so she must have called me and canceled my appt. Nope. I would have marked it off on the calendar under the phone-- and been insulted that she canceled my appointment -- and remembered it all.
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Figures.
 
Oldeagle66 said:
I just recently had a 6 hour wait in emergency for a lump in my neck I am concerned about. I called my doctors office and a triage nurse suggested emergency. All I wanted to do schedule a new appointment since mine was 3 months away. After 6 hours, I was told to contact my primary doctor. What a shame and waste of time.
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Well, I went back yesterday and had a biospy. So far they think it's a fast spreading cancer and have already scheduled more tests and inpatient surgery. What a way to start the new year after fighting another form of cancer just last year
 
This is why I have my one prejudice. I hate doctors, nurses, generally anyone in the health care professions but mainly I state without reserve loud and clear I HATE DOCTORS.

With apologies to the doc I had in Denver who has passed on now (left Denver three decades ago) who was truliy the wonderful exception to the rule. I still miss him. Him I'd still go to. The rest are so truly horrible that I've quit going to doctors Was already having issues with this very problem (you know being ill and in chronic pain, waiting an hour on a hard plastic chair is an issue and one they know I have and just don't give a hang that they're putting me in agony) then Covid hit - and made things worse.

I'm done. I'm old. Unless, as someone stated above, it's a broken leg or something like that that needs obvious emergency attention, I'm just no longer subjecting myself to the medical torture. The first barrier is I just can't sit in the waiting room gathering dust and groaning. Literally, physically cannot.

This said, when I was still going pre-Covid (I stopped cold with that hot mess wherein dcotors showed their true colors not gong to bat for their patients), I always made my appointments for first in the day. This mostly worked. Mostly.

There was the doctor that ran over an hour and a half late for an 8am appointment then comes in grinning with a gift bag to be told my reception that I was complaining and asking where he was. She had had to tell me (distraught but trying to hide it herself) that she just didn't know. Turns out he got invited to some breakfast/brunch thing where he was being honored and didn't even tell his staff. Yeah, fired him.

There was the one where I got fired when he was two hours late and I was groaning in pain for daring to ask the receptionist what was going on, I couldn't be expected to wait that long, the doctor knew of my severe health conditions. How dare I?

The problem today is doctors are mostly in it for money. The doctors that are in it becasue they care are rare as hen's teeth. Like that guy in Denver, still miss him and he somehow managed to chat pleasantly with every patient without getting horrendously behind. Oh wait that's because he scheduled each appointment a half hour apart so he could spend at least a half hour with each and draw a deep breath in between and not overtax himself, you know sensible approach, God, he was wonderful. Too bad he's the exception not the rule and you're lucky if you can find one like him; most of us can't.

Think about most of the excuses made for them. Hospital/nursing home rounds. They know they have that so they can't allot time for that because why exactly? I doubt it takes them more than two hours. So start scheduling your appointments two hours after you'd normally start doing rounds. This ain't rocket science and if you've managed to graduate medical school, you should have at least as much ability to figure out that as I with only a high school diploma can. Don't blame your receptionist. You're her boss. You give her the orders to not schedule any appointments before 10:00 am.

We all know why they don't do that. And why they do things like triple book. (Again, not a thing my doc in Denver would dream of doing. What he would do if you had something urgent going on is stay late to take you in at the end of the day or skip lunch to see you if he didn't have a cancellation where he could take you instead. He once called me up when he got a cancellation after telling me come in at 5:00 (his end of the dayi). Yeah, that's a doctor who cared.)

MONEY! The almighty dollar. More patients means more accumulated wealth to them and they just assume their pateints will take it. Because we are a commodity to them, not people.

No I quit. I'm done. I just can't do it. I'm old. If I die, I die. Enduring doctors just ain't worth it. Then, of course, I don't fear death and would rather die a natural death than live an unnatural life kept alive on machines and meds that nine times out of ten might improve one condition but make you sick in various other ways.

Ever notice doctors no longer seek to cure but keep you dependent on them for life? I stalled for years just getting them to call in renewals to my pharmacy. At first, they wrote it off to Covid fears making me afraid to come in. (They were wrong about what I was afraid of; I've developed after being subjected to what I "fondly" call medical torture for decades a severe Iatrophobia, fear of doctors. I just about panic at the thought of ever seeing one of those greedy SOB's again.) They called in the script renewals for years but 2024 finally reached come in if you want the renewal.

I didn't. I just can't even see myself waiting longer than half an hour and know I would have to. I also know it'd entail at least a blood pressure reading which is always brutally painful and bruises my arm and possibly needles which are also very painful for me, for some reason. I just could not make myself do it.

So hydrocodone quit cold turkey. Depression and crying jags ended immediately. Two blood pressure meds - both of which are supposed to be tapered off of - quit cold turkey. No noticeable difference whatsoever. Looking them up. they can both cause diarrhea so now I'm wondering if my IMBD is even real or just a side effect. Certainly ain't occuring as much. Interesting. Very, very interesting. I'm starting to think I'm better off without doctors.

Yes, that may be different if I were younger. I'd be more worried about my life ending unnecessarially whereas now if anything natural does me in, I write it off to old age. But then again, that's how they get you to line their pockets. Of course, I'm left with the niggling suspicion that they want to off the boomer generation and discouraging even seeing doctors is one way to do it. Whatever. I highly suspect I'm better off without them and using home remedies and over the counter and researching what to eat and drink instead.

I hate doctors. Because they just don't care about anything but their bank accounts. They are not in it to save lives. They are in it to get rich. Plain and simple. It is not in their best financial interest to cure you so they don't. Don't bother trying to change my mind. You can't.
 

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