re: To all Doctors out There

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I've had to cancel at the last minute but always offer to pay my co-pay because it was my fault and try to reschedule.

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You should not have to do this, but the gesture is nice...a simple call should suffice.

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But I've also sat in the waiting room for way too long after my appointment time.

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I hope you have a physician that realizes how important it is to run as close to on-time as possible. If I am behind, it is not because I'm screwing around, and I'm going to acknowledge the inconvenience to the patient, explain myself and move on from there.

The age-old question about multi-booking appt. slots makes some folks scratch their heads, but the fact of the matter is that people want and need to be seen in a timely fashion, so is it better to wait 6 weeks to get an appt, or possibly wait an extra 15 minutes or 1/2 hour in the office?

If a physician has multiple rooms and efficient staff, the the time demand from multi-booking of appt slots can be mitigated. There are certain bottlenecks that are difficult to get around such as multiple patients checking in at the same time and updating patient charts (patient paperwork or database entry). Patient self data entry can help as does the practice in my office of trying to manage the type of appts that are made close together. Problem is can't always predict how appts turn as far as time, and trying to predict what happens on the hospital side can be impossible - my office is in a hospital complex, so this helps with that issue. I like to think that most of us operate in good faith in this regard, I know that I certainly do.