re: Why can no doctor make good on their appt time?

I am on time almost every day.

But my specialty is conducive to running on time.

Most medical specialties are not able to be run on an exact time schedule.

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The nurse shows me what room to go in, does her routine (take bp, etc) then says "he will be with you in just a few minutes" and that shite annoyed the shite out of me because I knew it wasn't going to be just a few minutes.

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Yep. This is the worst

i got the earliest appt of the day and thought damn i will have no wait...waited 45 min the fricker was late

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Surgeries don't always go as planned dumbass which delays them getting to their clinics.

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Family practice docs, and pediatricians, doing a lot of surgery these days?

It's a combination of over booking and patients talking , I worked in a clinic where the standard was to double book every slot , some were triples. Also add in patients asking lots of questions.

Mostly fatties taking up the doctor's time with their fat problems.

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haven't been to one in ten years

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Slow death, baw.

You want to be seen on time? Easy, only schedule Friday afternoon post lunch...place is a GHOST TOWN erry Friday afternoon

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Surgeries don't always go as planned dumbass which delays them getting to their clinics.

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Most physicians do not perform surgery nor Are they in the operating room

1. Patient encounters are not static events that require a specific amount of time. They are dynamic and require varying amounts of time based on pathology, social needs, and medical urgency. Many schedulable services are static or at least in the full control of the one setting the schedule. Patients have unrealistic expectations that the majority of office visits are comparable to oil changes, car washes, business meetings, job interviews, and even dinner reservations.

2. Although the OP and many in this thread are likely courteous enough to show up on time (15 min early) for their appointments, many patients do not.

3. Due to changes in insurance, reimbursement, and documentation requirements, the check in process rarely is simple and smooth. In many cases if staff do not verify insurance or collect copays prior to the visit, the physician simply will not get paid.

4. lower reimbursement rates and higher overhead are an ever increasing problem for most physicians. What was considered an acceptable loss in #3 above can no longer be tolerated.

5. due to #4 medicine has become largely a volume business. This means more patients in the same time period. When estimations of allotted time are insufficient, patient delays occur.

6. lack of control in price setting leaves physicians without the ability to offer expectation meeting premium service (on time every time) by simply scheduling more time than could possibly needed for each patient.

7. physicians spend on average 30 to 60 percent of their time not in direct patient care in the performance of their jobs. The more a physician does the higher that time. Surgery, hospital rounds, stress tests, office procedures, business meetings, ACO meetings, community education and outreach, nursing home oversight, home health oversight, pharmacy communication, insurance prior authorization phone calls, consultant discussions, deliveries, hospice oversight or order clarification, patient phone calls, lab result review, radiology review, educational requirements, all take time and all occur simultaneously with office hours.

8. many physicians face the tough decision of getting sick patients in to be seen acutely while staying on schedule. Some choose to schedule those patients out in the future. Some like me see sick same day and walk in appointments all the time. This unknown costs minutes and those minutes add up.

9 patients no show appointments creating downtime (no patients to be seen) in between an already busy day. the no show rate can be as high as 20% in some offices.

10 Some patients require in house testing and appropriate time for results or repeat exams during the same visit causing a room congestion. Having an abundance of rooms allows those patients and their care to move slower as the physician is able to see other patient in the mean time and keep moving. Overhead rates have increased to the point that the number of exam rooms is limited to reduce lease costs.