The perfectly punctual podiatrist
The other day I had an appointment with a podiatrist. My rather modest goal was for him to view a slightly-ingrown toenail, and perhaps offer a solution. I hadn’t been to a podiatrist in many moons, but I chose one who is relatively nearby, about a seven-minute drive.
Easy-peasy.
I had filled out a ton of paperwork they’d sent me—you’d think I was going in for major surgery or being vetted for a job with the CIA—and I was to bring the forms with me. So all was set for the 2 PM appointment. I was on track to be on time, or maybe one minute late, and the drive was through a part of town that never had any traffic to speak of at that time of day.
But about 3 minutes from my destination, an enormous truck emerged from a construction site and pulled out in front of me. It did not budge. No one else could move, either, and that included me. I figured that any moment now it would be going. But it stayed put, and as minute after minute passed my consternation grew.
Should I phone the podiatrist’s office? Would it matter? How late was I going to be? While I was mulling that over the truck started moving, but at a snail’s pace—perhaps one mile per hour, a slow slow roll. I had no idea what was going on or why. After a couple more minutes the truck came to a turn and got off the road, and I proceeded, figuring I’d be around ten minutes late to my appointment.
I arrived at 2:12—but still, not bad under the circumstances. I told the receptionist my sad tale, and she took my papers and started processing me, asking for my insurance card and xeroxing it. Then another woman working there came towards the first one and they had a conversation I couldn’t hear, after which the first woman turned to me and said, “It’s too late. The doctor can’t see you.”
I looked at my phone again—now it was exactly 2:14, and I’d been there several minutes already. I asked how long an appointment I’d been scheduled for, and she said a half hour. I asked if I could have the remaining quarter hour to see the doctor, because I had a very simple problem I just wanted him to look at. It wouldn’t take long at all, and I’d waited two weeks for this appointment.
Her answer was “no.” Just no, with no real explanation. I said that I’d cleared the decks of other things and put myself out to get there, and through no fault of my own I’d been twelve minutes late, and that I’d often had to wait much much longer than that in doctors’ offices.
“Well, we run this office on time,” she said. “I can reschedule you.”
“I don’t think so,” I answered. “After all, if another truck comes by next time, the same thing will happen again.”
And then I walked out. I plan to go to a different podiatrist.
But here’s my question: is this sort of thing standard these days? A few minutes late, and it’s better luck next time?
No in my experience. Usually they are late a lot so there is a glass houses thing keeping them in check.
Ouch. That is pretty poor customer service. I would not go back.
I was recently told by my eye doctor’s office that because I was 8 minutes late to a visual field test, it had to be rescheduled. This from an eye doctor that runs the office so poorly that they are routinely an hour or more behind schedule for her to see patients. Unfortunately, not that many doctors in the field that I need in the area I’m in, and it’s very important to have continuity of care. Otherwise I would have switched long ago.
That’s not S.O.P. here in the South. Doctors’ offices usually treat people better than the waitresses at Durgin Park in Boston.
OTOH, last year my wife had an appointment with an infectious disease practice (for her failed knee replacement). We didn’t want to go there, but her surgeon had insisted. We arrived early, only to find the building vacant. It was like the movie The Sting – no furniture or anything – not even any toilet paper in the restrooms! But we found a sticky note on the office door, reading “We’ve moved”. We’d had this appointment for two weeks and the staff didn’t have the courtesy to notify us of the move. Needless to say we were both pissed at that point because we had just driven for an hour-an-a-half to get there.
I called the new place and asked for directions. When we got there, the staff couldn’t care less. The bored receptionist gave us a token, “We’re sorry” and then went back to reading her magazine. Our anger level had increased exponentially by that time and when my wife and I finally got to see the PA, we told her to stick it, accused her of medicare fraud, and we left and never went back. The surgeon who had referred us to her (to cover his hindquarters) wasn’t real happy, but he smoothed things over. I wrote the hospital which oversaw that practice and never got a response.
So I take back everything I said about the South.
Sounds like front desk lady has a personality problem and you are right to take your business elsewhere. I always end up waiting at the doctor’s office. Always. I show up early, give id cards/insurance card, fill out forms. And even then, the waiting. And with the TV blaring away – it’s always either The View (ew) or some weird piped in medical channel which scolds the captive audience about eating right and exercising. Also, the front desk lady gingerly hands the forms through the sliding glass window and then slams it shut on all of us lined up in the waiting area. Like we’re a bunch of lepers. Unfriendly! It’s like going to the DMV. They don’t think of us as customers. Part of it is professional disdain – this is a doctor’s office, not Sears! They’re providing a valuable professional service, not a toaster oven. A big part of it is the degradation and complication of medical service payments, courtesy of Obamacare and, prior to that, the insurance industry.
You’re lucky they didn’t charge you a fee for missing the appointment. A few years ago, I was going to an orthodontist and my car wouldn’t start, so I missed the appointment. I was told there was a $100 fee for a missed appointment, but that they would waive it. Fine. This was when I was driving my previous car and having a lot of trouble with it. So, the same thing happened again. The second time they would not waive the fee, so I paid it and never went to that orthodontist again.
They might even bill you for being a “no show.”
Yes, some doctors offices do that. I plan on being a few minutes early, particularly with paperwork, and if I know I am going to be delayed, I will call them and maybe ask if they can swap slots with the person after me, who might be there already. They really hate missed and not cancelled appointments. In some respects I don’t blame them because time is money. OTOH, in your case, having reserved a 30 minute slot for you and 15 minutes left, not putting you in is just bad customer service.
Round here you wait for them, they don’t like waiting for us. The last couple of times I’ve been to the doctor, I fill out a bunch of forms only to talk to them and find out they didn’t bother to read them. In the future, it would be nice to find a way to see which of them supported Obamacare, so I could not patronize their practice.
He’s a podiatrist. They’re all crazy. Still, I’d look for another one whose obsession isn’t punctuality.
KLSmith:
I’ve discovered over the years that the forms are just for filing away, not for reading. And that’s not just podiatrists, either.
Try researching natural solutions at:
http://www.homeremedyshop.com/9-home-remedies-to-get-rid-of-ingrown-toenail/
Try soaking your foot in an Epsom salt solution. After you dry off, try Vicks (or house brand) Vapor Rub. Yeah, you’ll nee to sleep with a sock on but . . .
Epson salt solution as hot as you can stand it and sharp toenail clippers work for me!
I have never encountered anything like that at a doctor’s office.
Doctors think that they are royalty.
It’s really that simple.
Our health care provider has an automatic 15 minute grace period. Of course this is in California, where 15 minutes late is standard.
I really appreciate a Dr who tries to run on time; how refreshing. But, a little common sense please.
By the way, I seldo see a medical provider these days that I don’t get a follow up survey. Probably not at that Podiatrist though.
If it’s not too bad, you can fix it on your own and it’s not too hard. Take dental floss, coat it with the neosporin ointment (NOT the cream, and one that has the pain killer effect is nice.) Wedge it under the toenail. Change one or two times a day. It’ll be amazingly quick before the pain is gone. Of course, soaking in epsom salts, too. As hot as tolerable. Get better soon.
Ingrown toenails are amazingly painful.
I think you made the right choice to find a new doctor, Neo.
While 15 min may have been plenty of time for your doctor to see & diagnose your toe, I bet a good amount of the allotted time is spent on mandatory paperwork/EMR data entry. The last time I went to my primary doctor he sat in front of a PC and rattled off a bunch of questions as he keyed in the responses. It was more like a visit to the DMV (and I’ve found a new doctor since then!).
On the other hand, my son’s cardiologist is always running 30-60 min behind schedule, but once you get in you have his full attention, and he will discuss everything in detail & answer all questions no matter how long it takes. We have to allot a few hours for it, but it’s worth it.
If you really want to start changing the world around you , Neo, post this on your New Hampshire/Maine Yelp site WITH THE ACTUAL NAME . Then email the said podiatrist the line to the review. Name names and shame the devil.
To paraphrase a Seinfeld routine… You have an appointment to see a doctor at a certain time. You arrive on time into the… WAITING ROOM where you wait well beyond the appointed time. Finally they get around to you and invite you out of the WAITING ROOM into the back when you get to go into a smaller….. WAITING ROOM.
I’m going to start to bill for my time after a 15 minute grace period.
Dr. clearly suffering from foot in mouth disease. Outrageous. this is northern New England. No excuses.
I’ve been in the healthcare field for a long time – on the plan side, on the hospital side, and on the physician group’s side.
What I’ve noticed is this: doctor’s offices seem to have a high percentage of battle-axes running their offices.
I’ll share a short story. I was at my regular doctor’s office for a regular checkup, and needed a referral to my cardiologist, for whom I’ve gotten referrals before. The woman told me that because the referral was in the next month (I was there on July 30 and the appointment was in August), that I would have to go home, and come back into the office to pick up the referral after August 1. Obviously, I questioned as to why. Her response was that they need to check my eligibility, because it’s possible it might be terminated as of July 31.
I explained to her that physical therapy referrals are often for 90 days as a standard. (I know this because it was my job to transmit electronic referrals to the health plans for the physician group I worked for.) She said “that’s different”. I was torqued off at that point and left. When I got home, I fired off a letter (registered) to the doctor, and within one day, not only did I get my referral, they actually mailed it to me.
My point is this: write a letter to the doctor with the details. You may have gotten the office battle-axe that day. You may even get a free office consult from the doctor for those details.
Mostly, they don’t act like this, but when they do, I raise a stink. Doctor office managers have to learn that you’re the patient (client), and that they’re there for you, not the other way around.
Some nostalgia for you. Does anyone remember the days when doctors made house calls? At age 12 I had what my grandmother called a “bilious attack” so severe that I couldn’t go to school nor hardly get out of bed. Excruciating stomach pain. She called our family doctor just before lunch, and he agreed to make a house call. I was upstairs in my grandparent’s old 2 story. After poking in my lower right abdomen and getting a loud scream, he diagnosed appendicitis, picked me up in his arms, carried my down the stairs and outside into the back seat of his car, drove me directly to the hospital, and within an hour operated on me for an appendix about to burst. Saved my life probably.
Those were they days when family doctors weren’t rich, didn’t worry about medical malpractice, let alone the liability of driving me in his car without EMT training and without the help of an assistant.
This was a little over 50 years ago. My grandparents didn’t have health insurance but managed to pay the doctor and hospital bills in installments.
It was another country then.
A litany of reasons why we are fed up with the healthcare system. And the comparisons to the DMV say it all. We are becoming a bureaucratized nation.
The patient gets no respect because they don’t pay the doctors (usually) – it’s the insurance companies that pay. In the office manager’s eyes the insurance companies are the customer. The patients are the merely the means of getting paid.
All that said, I can assure you that military medicine is much worse. The military doctors work on a salary, they have an eight hour shift, and you may never get to see the same doctor twice. And, of course, the patient cannot sue for malpractice. I had two nightmare medical experiences while in the Navy. Both could have been avoided by someone being totally responsible for my case and seeing that proper procedures were followed. The Navy apologized, but that doesn’t quite make up for permanent injuries – albeit none disabling. 🙁
That is what single payer would be like. Believe me, we don’t want that.
Some vendors are very concerned about reviews at sites like Yelp. Give them an all-guns blazing review at Yelp.
Shouldn’t have simply picked a physician on basis of proximity. That’s, uh, unwise. Don’t you have any of your docs whom you’re on good terms with, who might give you a referral?
Read Mayo site on it and what I did was take cotton, put neosporin ointment on it, twist it into a thread, and then wedge it under my nail. Here’s the Mayo site:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/ingrown-toenails/basics/treatment/con-20019655
Whats standard is even worse…
mny allow you to be late… but many are late themselves and make patients wait… ALSO, hospitals (i work for one) now have the young doctors trained to seek test after test and to code it so that you get the tests and they make money (treble under ACA compared to small offices).
what has this led to? well. i went in, good blood pressure. border line high lipid, etc… and i had to go get a cat scan of my heart, which was clean (with me in the 67 percentile for my age)… and i look and they coded that i complained about chest pains that i never did.
but turns out the chest pains code opens up to the cat scan under 100% insurance under ACA, and so the hospital makes money on the doctor visit, and the extended tests you dont need.
the young docs are very bad.. i went to one, they took one blood pressure measurement and it was a bit high (usually its not, i track it myself so i know), and they started writing prescriptions for statins. i looked at the doctor and asked him if he really had a license and was sane… he didnt like that… but i asked what trend does one measure show? i never saw him again… he is out there hurting people.
by the way, same with the doc that saw me for the heart thing… ie yearly checkup, new doc, fresh out, and a servant of the hospital drumming up charges.
nothing i can do.. and the ACA is making things horribly worse outthere… the people are not buying and the economy is not rolling because ACA takes away all your disposable income and they are trying to save up the 6k deductible or more and the high payments that before they could choose to go without.
do note… you have to pay ACA before you can buy good food… pay rent… electric… etc… and its prices are rising faster than before the ACA.. .and you can be sure that eugenics is baked in as the faster the boomers and post boom die out, the faster the country changes to a feminist communist state… (it certainly isnt a patriarchal one. if your a woman and you had a dad, ask yourself. would dad have let me twerk at 13? not a good one, he would have oppressed you to a better life)
Did they charge you a penalty for a “missed appointment”?
I Callahan Says: What I’ve noticed is this: doctor’s offices seem to have a high percentage of battle-axes running their offices.
yes… feminist studies and that have changed medicine (i could give you links, but basically your comparing modern post feminist medicine with male patriarchal previous kind. ie men served the patients, women serve the state – which tells them what to think and what they should do as they are independent people)…
but like everywhere else they touched or their leaders improved for them, its a lot worse… [and why The View is on in the office]
but look. now your equally miserable..
unless your a white male, then your unprotected and get a double dose…
The Other Chuck Says: Some nostalgia for you. Does anyone remember the days when doctors made house calls?
I do.. but that was before education, and all that was taken over by the oppressed victim class of women and affirmative action and free college for them, and the legal games…
now, forget it…
later your going to find a huge shortage of doctors, because women cost the same, but they retire or leave the field after fewer years. making them a lot more expensive.. a lot more… they often claim they burn out easier than the men and of course the misery gets them more too..
Why having so many women doctors is hurting the NHS: A provocative but powerful argument from a leading surgeon
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2532461/Why-having-women-doctors-hurting-NHS-A-provovcative-powerful-argument-leading-surgeon.html
like many other problems that dont follow the feminist equalist script, we have to ignore it!!!!!!!!!! pretend it doesnt exist, or its not true. with women doing the most at forcing no viable fixes because the fixes violate ideological utopian dreams of men havig babies and women equal by not having them (among lots of others that they dont pay attention to as a whole)
[edited for length by n-n]
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that this has nothing to do with womens abilities. The condition of lower standards (in areas not having to do with physical limits), is about getting numbers on a report to change to numbers the keepers and overlords want and have convinced us (for their reasons), that not having these numbers the way they “should be” is bad, very bad.
So rather than let things develop over time, and so maintain competencies and sort those who really want it from those who think they do and won’t do it or quit early when other options appear and seem to be or are a BBD (bigger better deal. Something that modern women are trained by drowning in media telling them what to do, like pets to pursue ruthlessly as a way to fix a current situation — run run run. If I have to sit and hear another woman tell me how she didn’t want the life she lived and really wanted other things and is sad they are out of reach, I will pull my hair out screaming).
Anyway, you can’t declare some point then expect the numbers to change instantly. In fact a watched pot never boils and they are watching that pot and confusing (purposefully?) a very slow rate that changes in generational time, with lack of progress. Who said? Who said what rate is progress and what rate is not valid progress or not happening? Who said the natural number in everything is divided equally? Who gave women that goal as a form of liberation, and who declared that we have to manipulate, bribe, trick, reform, and all that to their lives for that end? Did they ever really sign on to that, or did they sign on to something THEY think that is that it isn’t?
All I know is that to speed up the process of putting warm bodies in place so that numbers come out on a report, you have to lower standards.
[edited for length by n-n]
That’s just rude. I agree with the various commenters who suggested posting a Yelp review that names the podiatrist.
miklos:
Actually, it was a podiatrist I’d already been to, many years ago, and I’d had a good experience–and he was also nearby.
Precisely why I left the northeast. Far too many people there who could pick up a jelly bean with their ass.
(sphincters way too up tight)