I have one doctor with whom I always schedule early appointments, otherwise the wait can be horrendous. Emergency rooms are almost always excessively long waits, even if you are bleeding and have broken bones, as I had one time. It took 5 hours before I saw a doctor. Then again, in an emergency visit in the UK (thanks, NHS), I got a blood test, saw a real doctor, who correctly diagnosed my condition, was in and out in 47 minutes, and was never billed.

Well at least I'm not the only one. I think this guy probably just overbooks his schedule because he's in demand and trying to fit everyone in. On the other hand maybe he has a lot of friends and neighbors that get pushed through ahead of the regular folk. I just haven't had to wait like this in years so it was a bit surprising. I mistakenly thought healthcare providers had figured out how to avoid this kind of thing. They have you come early to fill out forms, tell you to arrive 15 mins ahead of your actual appt time, have you fill out forms online ahead of time, etc. Twenty-thirty minutes behind - I understand, two hours - not.

Hope it‘s nothing serious, Daisy! Best wishes to your Dad.

Best of luck, Daisy.

I've never had to wait that long. Of course the situation has a lot to do with it. I can handle a longer than expected wait in the waiting room, but once I'm in an exam room, partially clothed, a wait is a whole different thing. If it got to 30 minutes, I'd be stepping out in the hall looking for answers.

I once sat 45 minutes in a full waiting room for the dermatologist. Finally got to a room. Waited 45 more minutes! Told the nurse I had to use the bathroom so she pointed to the next door over. Gone, what, 3 minutes? Came back and waited another 15 minutes. Asked the nurse when I would see the doctor. She said “he went in to see you about 15 minutes ago but you weren’t there.” I left, and found a new dermatologist.

On the other hand, I called my OBGYN when I thought I had TSS (it was endometriosis), and he saw me that morning. I know there were two women in the waiting room when I walked in. A couple of years later I was waiting for a regular appointment when a young women, who looked about how I did that earlier day, walked in and they ushered her in. The nurse looked at me and apologized and I just said “I’ve been there, so I don’t mind at all.”

Omg, Daisy. I hope,they finally saw him. I used to work in a hospital and the ER doc said to faint at the front desk and they will see you in a hurry. Of course we know they see the most urgent cases first, but still. Around here they have fast tracks in the ER to see those that aren’t really emergencies or can be dealt with quickly.

Most I have ever waited was about 1.5 hours to see my mother’s eye doctor. If I’d have been there alone I would have left.

Two hours is very extreme for a scheduled appt. I get hhirenos point about things coming up but doctors do over schedule and I think it’s a bad cycle to get into. It’s hard on patients and the staff that have to deal with those upset to be waiting.

thank you for your concern. My dad was seen after 4.5 hours but is still here And is now waiting on a urologist As the doctors weren’t able catheterize him (tmi?). I’m guessing it could be a couple more hours. Wish I had brought my work and computer.

wait Time posted was two hours when we arrived but the nurses said they had several big cases come in by ambulance And of course things get backed up.

The are many reasons for long waits in doctors' offices these days. Over the years, I've worked in many ER's, offices and clinics, known many physicians, not to mention I've been married to one for 37 years now. Here are some of the main reasons I've encountered over the past 25+ years.

With Specialists:

1) The #1 reason is probably that most work for a physician group, hospital group or medical corporation and it is in their contracts as to how many patients they must see every hour. It's usually something like 15 minutes per patient// 4 per hour. Many times 10 minutes/patient. That, many times, does not give the doc enough time to adequately assess the patient and they run over. And, then this continues to put them more and more behind as the day progresses.

2) The #2 reason is that patients' medical info does not make it to the specialist on time . . . or not everything, meaning calls need to be made to the referring office/clinic/physician. And, the patient is usually in an exam room by that time!

3) The #3 reason is that patients get lost and arrive late, causing ongoing delays that way.

With Pediatricians:

1) From what I recall, the #1 reason is again, most work for a group and must see so many patients an hour. Again, 15 minutes max. And, with little ones, we all know how uncooperative they can be when they're scared or sick. Again, that extra time it takes causes ongoing delays.

2) The #2 reason is that many parents make the initial appointment for "Johnny" and then bring along sister "Susie" who's also not feeling well . . . "and it just started this morning, so I was hoping that you could see her, too!"

With Orthopedic Surgeons:

1) Same thing with working for a big group and, again, having a patient scheduled every 15 (sometimes 10) minutes. Complications always seem to arise, whether with the healing process, infections post-surgery or even during those initial pre-surgical consults. Or not the right medical info sent over on the patient.

2) Slowdowns occur MANY TIMES due to delays taking x-rays.

3) Patients arriving late.

With Family Practice Docs:

!) Many family practice docs are also in large groups these days, with the same time constraints, again usually 10-15 minutes per patient. My own sweet DH hated those constraints and stayed in practice by himself, seeing each patient for 30 minutes. You definitely don't make as much money that way, but you sure do catch a LOT of diseases or problems before they get to be big ones! It made him and his patients very happy, though, and that’s what counted for him.

2) The patient shows up late.

3) The patient makes an appointment for one malady and then comes in with several that they're hoping the doc will also take a look at. Some patients come in with long written out "laundry lists" of maladies. Or general questions.

4) A patient comes in for what they think is one fairly mild problem, but it turns out on examination, to be something much more serious . . . and time-consuming. Most common is something that turns out to be a serious heart or breathing issue.

5) A longtime, known patient injures him/herself and needs to be worked in ASAP.

Anyhoo, that's just my own list of probable causes for long waits . . . which are never fun, I know!

Lynn, thanks so much for that very informative explanation. I used to work part time in a doctors when I was in school. Things have obviously changed a lot since then.

Is there any reason why the front desk can’t communicate with the patient the reason for the wait?

Back when I was very young, before managed care, we expected long waits, “Because doctors have emergencies”. Every dang appointment time.

I guess I am lucky, rarely have to wait now. Our ER’s even get us to the back quickly.

I hope those dealing with health issues have good outcomes.

I never have a long wait, but I did have a sleep doctor that always made me wait 45 minutes, and then when I did see him, he would take calls in his office from his wife. I only saw him three times, and he never remembered having seen me from before. I got fed up with him and changed sleep doctors, and now I do not wait more than 5 minutes. All of my doctors are affiliated with UCLA because of my insurance plan, and they have a very efficient system, I think. Most of the time I have no wait, and often if I arrive very early, I will get seen early, especially by my dermatologist.

Another thing I did not like about my first sleep doctor was that the only magazine in the waiting room was Car and Driver, and I got tired of reading articles about how the latest Stingray or Jaguar would make a man appear more virile and therefore attract more women. I get the symbolism, but I found it offensive. My doctor was in his 60s anyway and married.

We've not had any serious illnesses or injuries or chronic illnesses in our family so we have been very lucky. I will say that I am very impressed with the timeliness and efficiency and warmth of all of our care providers. I think the use of texts to automatically remind people has been a help. Our family practice also uses this phraseology; "your appointment is at 9:30am, 'doctor time' is expected to be 9:45am." So you get there, sign in, do any paperwork, pay, etc,and then you see the Dr by 9:45am.

I have only had serious waits with specialists.. orthopedic (expected to some degree), eye surgeon and hemalogist (who is also an oncologist.. but I go for hematology), The longest waits have been with my eye surgeon-- as many as 2.5 hr-- and it's a 2 hr train ride to get there. In all cases, they are specialists who are likely to have emergencies. I accept it but I don't like it.

My family physician is almost always on time.. no complaints there.

Maddielee - I'm with you. If the front desk is aware that you won't be seen by the doctor within a reasonable wait time ( maybe 30 minutes) they should alert you when you check in. I think that's a courtesy they owe you. It may not change the length of time you have to wait but at least you have an idea of what's happening. Before he retired DH had an independent practice - he didn't want to be micro-managed. As a Hem Onc specialist he usually allotted 45 to 60 minutes for a new patient, follow ups were shorter. Telephone calls were another cause of delayed appointments - calls from pharmacies, other physicians or hospitals, or patients. And while the NP or PA could handle most of them others were urgent calls that required a return call that had to be squeezed in during the day.

Lynn is right about the other reasons and no one likes to be kept waiting. Sometimes I'll ask when I check in if the doctor is running late - at least it gives me the chance to run back to the car to grab my iPad. My OB/Gyn is the office where I may run into a longer wait time so I try to schedule my appt for early in the morning.

I used to wait for hours with my mom for her neurologist. However, when he got to us, the visit was never rushed and one time he spent about an hour with us when I was expecting only a short follow-up. I totally understood how he would get so far behind, and I frequently wondered what time he ended up leaving for the night.

I am also fed up with waiting. Now when I check in, I ask the receptionist if the doctor is running on schedule. Sometimes they can tell you.

I try to be understanding. If a dr. takes his time with me, then I understand the waiting (I would assume he is doing the same for all patients). Of course there can always be an emergency too. Never, ever should a dr. push friends/family ahead of other patients unless in an emergency. That is not right.

Daisy, I hope all goes well for your dad.

I really can't complain. All my appointments lately have been great for primary care or GYN or dermatologist. But like what Lynn said, when I am scheduling online for primary care--which I really like, it seems the appointments are every 15 min.

Depending on the type of doctor, sometimes there is a long wait. Emergency situations happen. They get behind. Frustrating as it can be, I try to remember if I ever need the extra time some day, the doctor will hopefully do the same for me.

For every doctor/PA visit I go to, I get a follow up survey via email.They always ask about the wait time.

Fortunately, I've not had to wait long for most visits.

I've generally had good luck with wait times. We did wait for a couple of hours to see my husband's cardiologist once. The nurse had already done the inital check-in activities (temp, weight, bp, etc.). The staff was good about letting us know that there was an emergency. He appologized when he arrived. I'm sure he was tired but he didn't try to rush through the appointment.

Agree on always getting early in the day appointments. Truth is Doctors have no control over what they will find and when appointments start needing more than the 20 minutes allowed per patient. Think of that doctor whose shift ended at 5 but is still there at 9 trying to get everyone in. Specialists are a rare breed and what choice did you have? If you had left you probably would have been charged and you would have to begin the appointment process all over again. It's the wait in the exam room I dislike the most. The worst wait for me was the time they called my name wrong and I missed my slot!! The only "doctor" I have walked out on was a dentist. It was a 6mos cleaning and an hour over was longer than I had. I had somewhere to be and knew if they started I would miss that appointment.

I took my Dad to many, many doctors appointments over the years and the only time we had a super long appointment, over 2 hours, was for his eye doctor and a regular exam and I let the desk know it was unacceptable and we switched doctors.

I was a squeaky wheel when needed to be and he was old and infirm and I wasn't going to make him sit longer than we had to.

I walked out of an appointment for a mammogram once after waiting more than 2 hours. It was an imaging center that did nothing but mammograms. I suggested they call me to re-schedule when they could run their office more efficiently. They never called. I now go to a different breast imaging center and the most I’ve ever waited is maybe 15 minutes.

I used to have a fairly demanding job with my own appointments to tend to. I had an appt to see a GI doc for a simple visit. I waited more than 2 hours. When he finally came to the examining room, I politely told him I didn’t appreciate the wait, that I had demands on my time too. He jumped square in my face and told me that if it weren’t for his having to double book so many patients because insurers paid so poorly, he would have been on time. That told me that he was (a) greedy, (b) unethical, and (c) probably cheating the system. I found a different GI doc. He’s pretty much on time.

I received my Patient Experience survey today and promptly completed it.

If more of us would walk out on the deliberate over scheduling and impact their income, maybe the Corporate Overlords would listen to the physicians who try to tell them that factory medicine (like factory farming) isn’t a good idea. Unless there is a negative impact to their bottom line, nothing will change.

My family practice doc regularly has long waits (about an hour). BUT...she is very caring and treats the whole patient. Eg. When I have Emmett in to see her she asks about my health and mental health, which is kind. So I wait patiently. She also schedules some same day appointments for emergencies which I appreciate as I hate going to the walk in. For most specialists we’ve been seen promptly but I do try to get in first of the day.

emergency (Canadian context) is a sometimes a crap show for us. I have learned no matter what you say, it’s what they SEE that matters, especially blood they triage more highly In my experience. So the more concrete signs you can display the better. For us it also depends on circumstance, just after an ice storm they have a bunch of broken bones, for example. So I know we won’t get seen quickly. kids’ er the longest we’ve had to wait was an hour and that was for a high fever, so definitely not life threatening. when Emmett had to go in as a newborn with low body temp, it was 1.15 hours from walking in the door to spinal tap and IV antibiotics. The doc said they shoot for under an hour. Even have a separate waiting room for neonates.

I think it would be really helpful for us to have a 24 hour urgent care, which could deal with the things like sprains and high fevers and after hours care. It would really free up the ER, the other thing the Er docs often complain about is when elderly patients are admitted in media al distress but end up squatting on beds in the ER for lack of long term beds to be discharged to. often times the admission coincides with caregiver burnout or just a lack of ability of the caregiver to give that heightened level of care. I think all across North America we are really going to have to examine how we deal with eldercare as the population ages.

Unfortunately, when I go to a doctor's office, it is because I HAVE to be there. So I end up waiting as long as it takes, grumbling under my breath and casting invisible invocations of destitute. I did spend one of those at a facility with NOTHING to read, which made that wait much worse.

I do try to make these waits better by setting up appointments as early in the day as possible, except for those eye exams which meant that going back to work would mean I'd barely be able to see after the eye drops for far too many hours. Even then, I had to sit until I was able enough to drive anyway.

I don't like to schedule appointments before 9:30 AM because I do not want to have to drive in rush hour traffic. I am less than 9 miles from UCLA, where many of my doctors' offices are, but it takes 45 minutes to get there early in the morning but only 15 minutes to get back home. If I have a late appointment and have to drive back after 4 pm, it can take me an hour to get home. For me, it is more important to schedule an appointment in the middle of the day, to avoid traffic. My primary care doctor is in Pacific Palisades, and that drive is not nearly as bad. Fortunately, I have not had long wait times when I schedule appointments in the middle of the day.

Slightly off topic - yesterday I called to make an appointment with my dermatologist. Nothing urgent, just a general skin check. I know that my derm is popular, so I told them that I wouldn't mind seeing another doctor in the practice. The scheduler told me that there was only one doctor in the group who was taking new patients and had an appointment in January. I thought "wait, January was last month", until I realized that she meant January 2021!

So I ended up with my regular derm, since I'm an established patient I could get in faster. My appointment is in June.

You kind of wonder what the logic is behind saying someone takes new patients but has a year long wait....

Off topic from my original vent but I do have to say I have excellent care in general and am fortunate to be in a larger metro area where I have choices and can generally be seen pretty quickly. So waiting two hours is a small problem in the big scheme of things.

The most limited choices are in primary care, particularly internal medicine. When DHs and mine retired I could not find another internist who was taking new patients who met my requirements. We ended up with a family practice doc which is okay since I manage our care and do my own research, find our own specialists if needed, etc. She is just not as thorough and not as knowledgeable about who to refer to.

Many of my specialists' secretaries appoint the appointments for me so I have no say if I will be the first or last patient. They call with the date and the time and if I can not arrange that with my schedule they call me back later with the next option it is odd. All my specialists only see patients by doctor referral.

Robo, I have learned that when my neuro calls ahead to the ER I get seen immediately. Same when our pediatrician has precalled about a child, we get in immediately. Not sure if that might work in Canada but it has made my emergencies more bearable.

Roarah you deserve it!

Here if I call the nurses’ line (811), they almost invariably recommend you head to the ER. They’ll fax ahead for me and I think it has helped me get in faster. Usually the ER people are like....why are you here again?

I waited over an hour once, in the exam room, for my family doc. It was getting toward lunch time, so when he finally came in, I said "I was just about to send out for a pizza." He laughed and apologized.

I hurt my hand, and the orthopedist on call was fresh out of residency (think Doogie Howser.) When I went for my follow up, I waited quite a while. When he finally came in, he apologized. He said that he had a child come in with "the worst thing I've ever seen", and he needed to be there for the parents. I was fine with that.

I waited 2 hours once, for a specialist. (Neurologist, not that it matters.) He was very impressed with himself and I was in/out in of the exam room in under 10 minutes. It was an utter waste of time and I'm surprised I didn't have a stroke with how ticked off I was. He did not apologize for the wait, or even acknowledge it in any way. I said something to the front desk while I was waiting for him, and their response made me surmise he was routinely this far behind. If I had needed ongoing care, I would have found someone else. I'd rather spend 2 hours driving to see someone else than spend 2 hours sitting in their waiting room.

Average wait for anyone in my family practice (MD or NP) is probably 30 minutes. It's mildly annoying but I can live with 30 minutes.

The only time I recall waiting 2 hours for a doctor was a plastic surgeon to remove a facial mole for my 13 year old daughter. She was a nervous wreck. Did not want to sit for two hours another day so we stayed. Luckily not too long a wait in the actual exam room.

A bit concerned as my primary care doctor just moved from solo to a group practice. I have not visited her at her new office yet, at her solo practice I was usually in a room within 5 minutes and she would make her way to me about 10 minutes later. Friday morning I called the new office to make an appointment, went through a 4 step phone menu only to be told by a recording it was a 20 minute wait to talk to someone or I could have someone call me back, it was not a good day for a call back or to wait 20 minutes so I will have to try again tomorrow. Guess I have been spoiled with my phone being answered right away in the past, at worst having to hold a couple of minutes for the receptionist to finish up with a call. I have been with my doctor 17 years, just love her. She just turned 60 so I am thinking this her first step toward retirement. Concerned with this move as when my previous primary doctor moved from a solo practice to a group he totally changed. He had been a wonderful doctor with a good personality, after he moved he was very crabby and they were horrible about following up with lab test results when treatment was needed. Ended up moving to my current doctor over that office change, really do not want to move again.

I mentioned in January in a topic I did about possible skin cancer that I'm notorious at getting up and walking out the door if I have to wait too long and used the term, "Runaway Bride" which is exactly how I am. I'm impatient, what can I say?

Although I was referred to a dermatologist back in January, she can't get me in until March, and the wait time is supposed to be horrific. She has a couple of hundred 5 star ratings, so I suppose I'll go.

The last time I up and left was when I deliberately scheduled to be the first patient with my optometrist to get new glasses, at 8:30. I got there about ten min. early, and at nine she still hadn't seen me. I was the only one there and when I asked the receptionist why the wait, she said, "The doctor is calling the patients back who called her." I just looked at her and said, "you're kidding me. Well, she can schedule it on her time, not mine." Then I left and burnt the bridge behind me. lol

Lynn, I hope you're still reading this because I have another theory on why the wait time with specialists are so long, and why it takes forever to get an appointment.

From personal observation and experience, most primary care doctors (the younger ones) today don't do minor procedures anymore. Except for stitches, every little thing wrong with us we have to go to a specialist.

In January at my yearly go-see visit to my PC, I mentioned two minor things that he could have easily have done himself (my late doctor did for both), and instead he referred me to two different specialists. I'm going to one but said no thank you to the other.

Also, insurance pays more if you're referred, right?

I remember waiting in an ER for something - nothing I couldn't wait for - but ahead of me was a kid about 10 years old who had slammed his hand into a closing car door. That poor kid had to wait nearly two hours to be seen, and his hand (semi-bandaged) was dripping blood. I have to say that kid was a trooper - he got a bit grumpy during the wait, but not often. Frankly, if I'd been ahead of him, I'd have waved him through.

It's an absolute disgrace here in Canada. It is very hard to get and retain doctors of any kind here in Prince Rupert BC. So many of the patients who are unable to secure a permanent doctor are told to go to Emergency for everything from filling a prescription to a sore back. Unless you arrive by ambulance, wait times are hours & hours long. Most of the staff are also lacking "people' skills but since patients have no other recourse they simply have to endure anything they receive in care. ArtemisArtemis_ma, I would have let that young child go in front of me as well 🙄.

Fortunately, our ER in our little town is pretty efficient. I have gone twice with DH in the last 3 or 4 months. Once he stuck his own finger in his eye while asleep in the middle of the night. We were seen immediately. In and out in under an hour. The second time, DH missed a step at his barber’s. He got more and more uncomfortable. Finally about 9 p.m. he decide he wanted to go to the ER. Yep, he had broken two ribs. That visit took a little longer, probably because the ER doc wanted to give him a strong pain killer. In our state, the prescriber is required to look up the patient in a database to make sure he/she isn’t an abuser of opioids.

Nevertheless, we were pleasantly surprised at the level of competence and the efficiency of the ER.

Dude?

Do I smell spam...? Where is Sushi?

Two hours is an awfully long time. But I'm glad you were able to be treated by an actual doctor. Thanks to the SC, not every woman will be able to.

Ok, a little spin on this. I added my doctor's appointment to my calendar from their reminder notice. Monday, June 6th at 11:30am. So I show up and checked in with the staff member at the reception desk and took a seat. Forty-five minutes later I went back to to the staff member for a polite version of "WTH". She double checked to ensure she checked me in and then informed me that my appointment was not until 1:00pm! I said, gosh, wish you had mentioned that to me when you checked me into my 1pm appointment at 11:30. She "didn't notice". So, not sure how the 1pm appointment was added to my calendar for 11:30 but I sure wish she had let me know I was an hour and a half early to my appointment so I could have gone to lunch, shop, or whatever. Such a waste of time. Bottom line - I am never early and hate waiting. Worst of both worlds!!

Sort of a funny story. Several months back i had a regularly scheduled appointment with a longtime specialist. There is usually a reasonably short wait until the nurse calls you in the back and then, within 10-15 minutes, the dr. comes in. This particular time I waited in the room for about 40 minutes. After the dr. left, the nurse said to me , ”sorry for the wait, the dr somehow skipped over you” The dr. had not said anything to me. Yesterday, at my scheduled visit with the same dr. I reminded the nurse that the dr. shouldnt skip over me again. The dr. came in within 10 minutes, but when he opened the door, I noticed they had a large, protruding NEXT sign taped to the door. After the dr. left I commented on it to the nurse; she laughed and said that even with the sign they sometimes have to redirect the dr.

I always seek the earliest possible appointment. Rarely do I wait even half hour total. I do think the second hour unclothed in the office is the most irritating but I understand. They want you READY for when the Doc is free. Still it's a much more difficult to just up and leave from that point. It makes me feel manipulated. My clinic has a sign 'if you've waited more than 20 minutes beyond your appointment time please inquire'. They don't want people stewing. I once had the reception/nurse mispronounce my name and 'missed' my turn. It was on me when I didn't inquire until I had sat there an hour. I've only ever left a regular dental check after an hour and a half wait. That office is much too small for them not to have communicated with me about the emergency that leaked into my appointment. A little communication goes a long way in these circumstances.