Does Your Doctor's Office Close for Lunch?

[MIGrandma]

I had a message on my answering machine yesterday from my doctor's office, asking me to return their call. She said they would be there until 5:00, and then today from 8:30 - 5:00. I have an appointment for my yearly physical and diabetic check-up on the 20th of this month so I really don't know why they would be calling...but I did try to call them back today at 12:45. I didn't even realize what time it was, then when I got their answering machine I looked at the clock and realized they must be closed for lunch.

Seems kind of odd to me that they all have to take the same lunch hour. It seems like someone should still be answering phones.

So I was just wondering if everyone's doctor's offices close at lunch and don't answer any calls.

 

[taylor3297]

All of the doctors offices I go to take lunch at the same time. Normally the message I get if I call during the lunch hour, will state what time they leave and what time they will return.

 

[scrapquitler]

All of my doctors (my OB/GYN, my regular doctor, the pediatrician and the dermatologist, as well as the pediatric dentist and the orthodontist) all 'close' for lunch hour. Honestly, I don't think they actually go out for lunch, I think that as much as anything, they use that hour as 'catch up' time and don't
answer the phones. At most of my doctors, if you have an appointment anytime within the hour or so before lunch, they see you 'during' their lunch hour. But then they lock the doors so no one else can come in and they don't answer the phone. Then they 'reopen' at 1:00 or whatever and they start the afternoon 'on time'. I've found that the BEST appointment is the first appointment after lunch because that is the one time you usually get seen close to the scheduled time.

 

[MAKmom]

Yes all my Dr close for lunch. I think only retail stays open for lunch hour

 

[Kathi OD]

Yep, all my doctors' offices close for lunch. It kind of makes sense. They hire a certain number of people to make the office run efficiently. If one person is on their lunch, the office can't run. Better for everyone to just take the same our, than have the office run poorly all afternoon.

FWIW, our post office also closes for lunch (an hour and 15 minutes). I had never seen that before moving here.

 

[Christine]

Yes, most of mine close at lunch. There are a few that don't though.

 

[TN Hockey Mom]

I work for the only Pediatric Neurologist Group in East TN and we roll our phones to the service for lunch. In fact, you can only reach us by phone 9a-12p and 1p-4p. We all come in 8:15-8:30 and don't usually leave until 5:00-5:30. Very seldom do we take a lunch, and if we do, we usually don't all take it together and we very rarely even get 30 minutes. We use the time to return calls left on our voicemails and to play catch up with all of the paperwork. A lot of times, our doctors are even still seeing morning patients thru the lunch hour. Our 1:00 patients start arriving to complete paperwork during the lunch hour as well. The service will put calls thru to our backline only if they're urgent.

 

[memster]

Yep mine too

 

[Pixiedust34]

Our pediatrician, orthodontist, and dentist do close for lunch. If I call during their lunch time then I'll get a "call back after lunch" message on the machine.

I don't think my primary care doctor does lunch breaks because I've never not had them answer the phone during regular business hours, even if I call in the middle of the day. Maybe they work in shifts there?

 

[bookgirl]

I had a message on my answering machine yesterday from my doctor's office, asking me to return their call. She said they would be there until 5:00, and then today from 8:30 - 5:00. I have an appointment for my yearly physical and diabetic check-up on the 20th of this month so I really don't know why they would be calling...but I did try to call them back today at 12:45. I didn't even realize what time it was, then when I got their answering machine I looked at the clock and realized they must be closed for lunch.

Seems kind of odd to me that they all have to take the same lunch hour. It seems like someone should still be answering phones.

So I was just wondering if everyone's doctor's offices close at lunch and don't answer any calls.

My Doctor, my pedometrist, and my optomitrist all close for lunch. I'm looking at dentists now but I expect they would also close for lunch. Makes sense to me. There's not much they can do without the doctor so when he goes to lunch they all go to lunch. Plus you can have better coverage (and hire less personel) if everyone is gone for one hour than if you have to stagger people and your office is understaffed for 1-3 hours every day.

 

[kaytieeldr]

My current primary care office doesn't close, but they have a LOT of people working - so can lunch/break in shifts. I know for sure the last practice I use did close. I know because I was getting daily treatments for a condition for a couple of weeks, and sometimes they'd run into lunch. A couple of times, when they ordered out, someone would ask me if I wanted anything or just slip me a slice of pizza .

Another interesting thing I've notices - pharmacists. Where there's only one on duty in a given location, especially with no technichians, the pharmacy closes for a hour or so. Makes perfect sense to me. When I worked at Brooks (now RiteAid), we had one pharmarcist scheduled each day for a twelve hour shift with NO official break!

 

[dislaney]

All of mine do and I know that because that is always the time I seem to call.

 

[wdwfan16]

Ours take lunch and turn the phones over to an answering service.

 

[Piglet843]

My doctor's hours:
8:30 - 4:30 with a lunch from 12:00 - 1:30.
(and i've had a 1:30 appt - and no one got back to the office till closer to 2)

Rough day huh...

 

[Ephany]

Our doctor's offices close for lunch and the phones are routed to a service. It's a weird lunch too, like 1-2pm so it caught me off guard the first time I called. As for pharmarcists, it depends on the company. Our pharmacist does 12 hour shifts with no breaks and no techs on the weekend.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Some do, some don't, depends on the size of the practice. A single physician/dental practice often does close for a lunch hour.

 

[RadioFanatic]

All of mine do.

 

[DVC-Don]

Yep, closed noon to 1:30 and if I call then I get a recording.

 

[disney1990]

Add me to the list. My doctors all close for lunch.

 

[Arielle22]

Mine do too.