How long do you wait at the doctors office?

[suzannews]

So after having appts on Tuesday and Thursday of this week and then a trip to the ER, I had ALOT of time on my hands. I wonder if all offices are the same or if I need to find a new one?

How much before your appointment do you arrive and check in?

How long after your appointment time are you called by the nurse and taken into an exam room?

Is there a large gap of time after the nurse has taken your vitals until the doctor comes in?

Anyone ever been late for an appt and told they had to reschedule? Not me but a friend was about 20 mins late for an appt at 10am and was told to reschedule even though the waiting room was full of people who had appt times of 9:30am and 9:45am.

Just curious.

Tuesday I arrived at 9am, appt was 9:05am, called by the nurse at 10:10am, doctor came into the exam room about 10:25am, out the door to the car at 11am...all while running a temp of 102.

Thursday I arrived at 9:20am, appt was 9:15am (still sick and wasn't sure I was able to drive myself there I was so sick), called by nurse at 9:45am, doctor came into exam room at 9:50am since I was so sick and sent me to the ER.

 

[Stacerita]

I know I am very lucky because my physician runs a smaller practice so my wait times are very small. I probably check in and wait about 5-10 mins. I run through my problem with the nurse/asst and then wait only about 5 mins for the doctor to come in. I am never there longer than 25 mins.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Wait times have run anywhere from 75 minutes to 4 hours. And yes, that is WITH an appointment.

 

[Scornelius]

I can wait anywhere from 5 minutes to 45 minutes. Then the nurse takes us in, and my doctor is usually in within 2-3 minutes. There's no pre-appointment thing with the nurse, ever. I love my doctor, though, because if I call on a tuesday I'm pretty much guaranteed to get an appointment on wednesday. He also sits and chats for a minute or two, before getting to the medical stuff. My last doctor didn't even make eye contact.

 

[monkey68]

Depends on where I'm going. My dermatologist, I've never waited more than 10 minutes. I have an appointment at 3:00, I'm getting called in at 3, and seeing the doctor right away. He's great, he doesn't overbook, and if you need a skin check appointment, he will book you for 2 time slots because those things take longer.

When I go to the regular physician at the school's clinic, it's a longer wait. I usually get called by the nurse around the time of my appointment, but it can take longer to see the doctor. Thing is, there are med students there as well, so they see you first, and they take your history and do a physical, so then they go to the attending and present, and then the doc comes in. But I know this when I go there, I go there because it's convenient and free for me since I'm a student. So if the doc has a student that day, they're going to get behind because it takes that much longer. But the docs are generally really great, and they will spend as much time with you as you need. They don't rush through the appointment, which I appreciate.

When I had to get my wisdom teeth pulled, it was a 7 hour wait. Yea, 7 hours. And yes, I had an appointment. My orthopedist, usually around a 20-30 minute wait, but you see the doctor within a few minutes of getting called into the room. When I go the ER, I'm usually REALLY sick, so they usually take me right away.

 

[delilah]

My experience is probably skewed, because I am a doctor, but, normally, I arrive about 15 minutes before my appointment time. Normally, I am taken to a room within a few minutes of my appointment time. I am usually seen by the doctor within a few minutes after that. Normally, I plan on the whole appointment to last about an hour for a routine type visit. And, I am usually correct. I have a large amount of forbearance and empathy for the doctors I see, whether they are medical doctors, podiatrists or optometrists. Emergencies come up.

I will clue you in on something. If I am running on time, and I don't have anybody waiting, I will see a patient even if they are late. If we are super busy, and running behind, I will usually warn late patient that they are going to need to wait until everybody else with an appointment who signed in before them is seen. So, if your appointment is at 10am, and you arrive at 10:15, and my 10:15 and 10:30 patients are already in the waiting room, you will not be seen until after they are seen. If your appointment was at 4pm, and you arrive at 4:20, you are probably SOL, because I need to pick up my son at school before the extended care staff turns into pumpkins and mice at 6pm. Today was an example. I was on call, and a person walked in without an appointment at 4:15 and wanted to be worked in. Well, all my rooms were full, and all of my patients were signed in. That person was going to need to wait until everybody else on my schedule was seen. Even without an appointment, they felt they couldn't do that. So, they went to the ER, where they weren't seen until after I had already gone home for the day. So, they would have been better off waiting in my waiting room until 4:50 instead of going to the ER and being seen at 5:30. With the time constraints I have, he would probably been on his way home before he was ever seen in the ER.

 

[MomToARedhead]

We have waited anywhere from no wait at all and ushered right back to about 1 hour (past the appointment time, not including the time I waited since I got there early). I always try to arrive 20 minutes prior to the visit. We had one terrible appointment to get my daughter her 4 month shots....appointment was at 1:20, we got there at 1, got called back around 2, the doctor took his time getting there, then he said that he was being evaluated that week and after his examination of her, ANOTHER doctor had to come in and re-examine her so the doctor could be evaluated. It was 3:45pm when they were done - it was a simple 4-month checkup on a very healthy baby! So then we got her dressed and took her down the hall to the room where she gets the shots and there was 1 person in there and they took 25 minutes. When it was our turn, it took 35 minutes and I didn't even allow her to get all of the shots (she can get 3 at a time). So we got out of there at 4:45 for a 1:20 appointment that should have taken no longer than 45 minutes.

On the flip side, we've had much faster appointments that were under the usual 45 minutes that they tell us to allot for routine appointments. So, it's hit or miss at our family practice.

 

[Plantlady]

We've waited about 30 minutes for the pediatrician. If you're more than 15 minutes late, they do make you reschedule. I always aim for 15 minutes early.

The pediatric neurologist is another story. Oy. We've waited over an hour in the waiting room, followed by an hour in the exam room, to see the man for 5 minutes, to get our 6 month check ups. This guy is also a 1 1/2 hour drive from us. So, 3 hours drive, 2 hours wait, 5 minute check up.. followed by the mandatory trip to chuck e cheese's, to cheer everyone up after that wait. It makes for a long day.

We are scheduled to go this monday. We'll aim to be there around 15 minutes early. Now, the kids take their DS's there. Much easier to deal with the wait.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

I actually billed one of my doctors a few years ago. I waited 3 hours, then was not seen - had to reschedule. I threatened to sue. My time has value, too.

My rescheduled visit was on the house, then I changed doctors...

 

[Kathi OD]

With our old doctor, I've waited up to 4 hours to be seen by my GP, and that was WITH an appointment. It was a regular occurrence to wait at least 2 hours to be seen.

It got to the point where I always asked for the last appointment of the day and told the receptionist to call me when the next to last patient was called into the examining room. Since we only lived about 5 houses away, I could be there before that patient was finished their visit.

Now that we've moved, I rarely wait more than 15 minutes. I liked the other doctor better, even though the wait time was much longer, but it is nice to know that I won't be getting hemorrhoids waiting to see the doctor.

 

[autumnpalm]

Wow! The longest I've had to wait for a doctor (with appointment) is probably around... 30 minutes?

In a clinic without an appointment, 4 hours or so is the longest.

In the ER, the longest I've waited was 6 hours with a broken arm.

 

[Piecey]

Looooooooooong time.

I've waited for my OB for 45 minutes before, which just pisses me off. All I do is pee in a cup and tell her I'm fine. (I realize I could NOT be fine, but it's ridiculous to need to wait that long!)
I waited less time for my plastic surgeon's appointments.

I've waited a RIDICULOUSLY long time (an hour and a half) for my primary care Dr. before, and if I hadn't really needed to see her- I would've left.
My new insurance doesn't have her in network, so I'm finding a new Dr... hopefully one with a shorter wait time!

 

[merryweather20]

I regularly wait 5 hours to see my Orthopedic Surgeon, yes thats with an appointment. He also saw me 5 minutes early one time too . Other doctors usually around an hour, your times are nothing to get worked up about.

 

[HelenePA]

I think we waited close to 6 hours once for Abby's heart dr.. it was awful. I think I even made Patrick go get us food.

 

[Stacerita]

I've waited for my OB for 45 minutes before, which just pisses me off.

I do give special consideration to my OB/GYN if I have to wait. Never know when he will be delivering babies.

 

[HelenePA]

I do give special consideration to my OB/GYN if I have to wait. Never know when he will be delivering babies.

Did you only see one dr or a group? I saw a group. Who ever was catching babies that day was not in the office. I never waited more than 15min

 

[Stacerita]

Did you only see one dr or a group? I saw a group. Who ever was catching babies that day was not in the office. I never waited more than 15min

Just one doc. at the time I was pregnant. Now his wife is a PA and he has another PA to help him. I still never waited long. But we were warned that waits can happen due to the nature of the practice.

 

[kaytieeldr]

My previous doctor's office, I once had an appointment with my PCP at about 10:30, and got seen about 12:15 - she had some special needs physicals, plus she had to go look at a new office site, about five miles away, while I waited?????? Seeing the physician assistants/nurse practitioner usually went a lot faster.

But I recently switched to a practice closer to home, with more expanded hours, and two physicians and about a dozen nurse practioners. I always get called in by my appointment time (often sooner); between the medical assistant and the NP spend very little time waiting alone in the room; and one day, when I took a half day off work to be sure to make a 5 PM appointment, and ran as many errands as I possibly could to kill time, and showed up two hours early FULLY intending to wait (choice between reading their extensive selection of magazines, or spending more of my money on things I didn't need?) - they worked me in.

 

[honugirl]

It depends on which doctor I'm seeing. My primary care physician is pretty good, I don't usually have to wait for him. But my specialists, they're the worst! My ortho routinely runs 2 hours behind schedule, my endo is about an hour to an hour and half late usually and his appointments are LONG. I went in for an 8 pm appointment and came out of there at 1 am by the time I had my blood drawn and did all the other tests.

 

[rie'smom]

I won't wait longer than 30 minutes to get into the exam room. If a doctor has an emergency and will be later, I think the receptionist should let waiting patients know so that they have the option to reschedule. We're lucky in that our family doctor is considerate and we don't have long waits.
Once several years ago at another doctor's ofice I had to wait a couple of hours. That was when I switched.