re: Pediatrician Visits Re: Wait Times

Every time I’ve taken my kids it’s taken less 10 min.

Maybe don’t be poor

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brightest professionals in the market

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Sometimes, but they aren’t business people nor are they clinic managers

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they earn a pretty penny

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Pediatrician

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Ehhhhh....

If you wait a long time and then feel like you’re being rushed out of the room, go find another doctor. If your doctor sits down with you and your child, listens attentively, and spends a good amount of time caring for your kid, then I would stick with them. Also, don’t hate the player, hate the game. And by the game I mean the ACA and insurance companies cutting reimbursements and making documentation requirements so burdensome that doctors have to see more and more patients just to pay their staff and keep the lights on.

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At my little one's 1 year wellness visit and I've been "checked in" and waiting on the doctor for 45 minutes. This seems to be standard practice as I've visited multiple offices and always wait at least 30 minutes to be seen, regardless of time of visit. Once seen, it takes no longer than 5 minutes for useless information and/or a shot.

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Sounds like you may want to change Dr.s'. I wait no longer than 10-15 minutes max, when bringing my kids to see our pediatrician.

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You think an engineer could be late for a meeting or site visit every single time and explain all of that away blaming others and the weather?

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I hear versions of this a lot comparing doctor's appointments to appointments with financial advisors, insurance agents, engineers, or any other profession really. The difference is that the physician is the only one who gets paid based upon what happens at that meeting. The others are paid based upon what happens after the meeting. So, of course, they're incentivized to be on time and get you out of their office so they can get to work on what actually makes them money.

Our first pediatrician, when we lived in Katy, had just gone out into her own practice, it was just doc, a nurse, and an office person. Never had any waits at all.

When we moved to NOLA, we ended up with a pediatrician who was very popular, and it was hard to get appointments, but when we did, they were always on time. He just recently retired.

Many docs don't pay attention to a clock, especially older ones. They talk to the patient/parents until everything is understood. If the appointment scheduler doesn't understand that, you can fall behind quickly.

I honestly think a lot of it is due to people being late and the compounding effects. People down here are perpetually late.

Second is that I think when parent's finally have a doctor in front of them, the high maintenance parents drop a shite ton of questions: he threw up one time after eating an egg but that was two months ago, look at this, well... this weird rash happened a month ago kind of shite. What should be a 15min follow up spot turns into 30.

More times than not both of those things happen and exacerbate the problem. I assure you that the physician, most at least, are stressed about their clinic running behind.

I've gotten rid of several doctors over the past year because of this bullshite. Wish I could send them a bill for my time.

It has been hit or miss for us, the one thing I have noticed is that the doctor never rushes us out once we see her. She is always willing to spend as much time as necessary explaining whatever the issue is, which I appreciate.

I suspect a lot of it is the volume of patients they need to see since insurance reimbursement rates for primary pediatric care are very low, and if they accept Medicaid... its like they are offering a free service.

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I'm just genuinely curious why they're all so unpunctual.

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Not a pediatrician but we all deal with some of the same issues:

-pt insurance requires preapproval for a prescription

-same thing for labs/imaging/referrals/etc

-you ordered a CT scan with contrast. The pt is there to have the study done but the imaging center insists on a creatinine lab, even though the pt has zero kidney problems. They won't take a verbal order. So you fill out the order right then and have it submitted.

-meanwhile you get a message from one of your nurses that a patient has a 103 degree fever, increased pain, etc etc and won't go to the ER without speaking to you first.

-then your phone rings. It's Dr Williams. Yall have a pt in common and you've been playing phone tag for days trying to get that pts treatment coordinated.

-CVS calls your office: won't take the prescription you wrote because its written for Amoxicillin tablets and they only have capsules. So you have to redo it.

-You finally get into the room with your next pt, a new pt. They have a stack of records and 3 CDs with images, not a god damn one of them will load on your computer.

-next pt. Brayden's mom wants to argue with you about vaccination, and shes requesting/insisting that you write him an excuse--ie fraud-- saying he's medically exempt from the vaccines his school requires.

-another pt has 8 different complaints/issues, 7 of which were not mentioned when they made the appt.

-family member who has been taking care of your next pt needs FMLA paperwork and 23 other forms completed for her work. She has to submit them today.

-then you have to waste 7 minutes on a phone call with some dumbass at an insurance company to appeal a denial for one of your patients. Usually they've denied a study or treatment that is 100% medically indicated and standard of care AND covered by the pt's policy. Why? frick you. Thats why.

I could go on for quite a while.