Does Your Doctor's Office Close for Lunch?

[FINFAN]

yep, and our dentist closed for Spring Break and Christmas break! And get this, no Sat or evening hours either anymore. Time to get a new DDS.

 

[mjkacmom]

I've never heard of a doctors office NOT closing for lunch - one of the reasons why they have answering services, or machines. My OB closes from 12 - 1, the pediatrician from 1 - 2 (and I don't know the hours for specialists).

 

[tink_n_pooh]

My primary MD's practice doesn't close for lunch and they are open from 7am-9pm M-F and they also have hours on saturday. This is a pretty large practice though so I'm sure they work in shifts and someone is just always available.

Most other doctors offices that I've dealt with do close for lunch though

 

[1tricky1]

i work for a gp
i stay during lunch hours and answer phones but i get off at 430.
the dr will sometimes work through lunch if we get off early that day.
sometimes we are running late and our am appts go through the lunch hour. but i like getting off eary.

vicky

 

[camlace]

All of my doctors "close" at lunch as well. Drives me crazy since I can never talk with them on the phone..they call in the morning while I am working, I call back at lunch when I am free, get the service, they call back in the afternoon while I am working...you get the picture. It usually takes a good 48-72 hours before I actually speak with someone NOT at the answering service.

 

[sdemore]

Every single one of my family's doctors: ped., gp, ob-gyn, and all DH's specialists close for lunch. As others have previously stated for the most part I think they use a great deal of that time catching up with office business

 

[Piecey]

My OB/GYN does. Primary care does not (HUGE practice, though!) and the pediatrician doe not. At least I don't think so.

I seem to only have issues when I call my OB

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

All of mine do--but in the event of true medical emergency, the message indicates for you to call 911...or in the case of my OB, you are transfered to teh call center to have the OB paged. So if I were in labor, or had a complication--my doc isn't totally unreachable.

 

[webprinter]

I am a nurse in a clinic (and have been for about 25 years). I don't remember ever working in a clinic where the entire office closed down for an hour for lunch. Most places I have worked, the nurses don't even get an hour for lunch since morning clinic usually runs late. We have always had at least one nurse and one receptionist on duty for phone calls and walk in patients that need to be triaged. I guess I have just worked in the wrong clinics.

 

[pooh4evr]

Dh is a PCP and his office "closes" for an hour I think from 1230-130 or so - usually like PP have said it is for catch up, charts, returning phone calls, labs, and the all important pharm reps. - He starts office hours at 930 - and closes at 500 - rounds on his patients in the am and pm if any admits during the day

 

[KristaTX]

I am a nurse in an allergy/asthma clinic. We have around 17 employees plus two doctors, and we do not shut down at lunch. We (nurses and receptionists) stagger our lunches so that everything is covered for the entire work day. The doctors sometimes take a brief lunch, but sometimes they don't. It depends on how backed up they get in the morning. They start scheduling afternoon patients for 12:30. They two of them see at least 80 patients a day combined - closer to 100 during the busy season. Honestly I wish they wouldn't start afternoon patients until 1 p.m. just so they had a few minutes to get to their phone calls, refills, labs, etc.

But not closing for lunch is probably mostly because of our specialty in allergy treatment. Lunchtime is one of the most popular times of day for people to come in for their allergy shots. Our shot room often gives close to 200 shots a day. If the office is open for that, I guess the doctors think they may as well be seeing patients.

 

[JessicaR]

My doctors office doesn't close for lunch.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

My GP is on service for 2 hours at lunch... They do not leave the office. Now I just go over there if there is a major problem during those hour. 2 hours is way to long to be on service mid-day.

 

[OK!]

Yes, my doctor's office is closed from noon to 1 pm every weekday.

 

[disfan07]

My gynecologists office and my dermatologists office both close for lunch noon-1 BUT, they are also teh only two doctors I have that work in their office 5 days a week. My doctors all have weird schedules

My Internist is only in her office monday and thursday
My pulmonologist is only in his office monday and wednesday all day adn friday after 1PM
My cardiologist is only in her office tuesday, thursday adn friday but only when she has appointments otherwise she is at the hospital (so if I'm her only appointment friday morning, she comes over from the hospital, sees me adn than goes back)
My allergist/immunologist works clinic on tuesday and than is back and forth from the peds. clinic and the hospital teh rest of the week. She comes in on fridays for me becaus eof my schedule.

Whats so funny though is that it is extremely easy to get in touch with all of my doctors even though they are never in their offices...its great

 

[lilmissdisney216]

My ortho closes for lunch but the dentist office I work at doesn't close for lunch usually.

 

[ED.]

I think doctors who do close for lunch should stagger their hours and paper work to be done at the end of the day. that way you see more people and it is more efficient. even if you have to work 12 hours a day everyday including
saturdays. and if the crew can not handle the work load hire some help.

 

[snapppyd]

Mine also closes for lunch - you get the answering machine. There is a number to call if you have an emergency, just like when they are closed at night.

 

[scrapquitler]

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.

Yes The answering service picks up and takes a message.

Honestly, I can tell you that my doctors offices all seem to use lunch as a time for the doctors to catch up since they usually end up behind schedule by mid-day. That 12-1 Lunch hour is also the time that the doctor ALWAYS calls back if I have called to ask a question. On top of that, there's only one receptionist, so for her to get a lunch break (thank goodness, I wouldn't want to sit in the waiting room and watch her sitting there eating her lunch) they kind of have to close the front desk.

 

[MIGrandma]

And yet another "old" thread dug up from the past today...this one's a year old.