Mal de medicine

I had occasion to see an orthopedic surgeon yesterday: new doctor/new medical group for me.

I have both a personal and a professional interest in the culture of medical practices—I do, after all, work in the healthcare-technology field.

Also, the day they were handing out patience the line was way too long for me to stand in. So I have a short tether when it comes to medical office personnel, overbooking and doctors too rushed to find out what my medical situation is. And I pay close attention to how an office is managed and how they treat their patients.

For example, a couple of weeks ago I went to a dermatologist. The instant I walked into the waiting room I knew I wasn’t going to like it, because nearly every seat was taken. Sure enough, it was more than 20 minutes after my appointment time that I was called to the exam room. And when I pointed out to the nurse that fact—along with the information that, as a contractor, I don’t get paid for the time I spend in their office—she apologized and told me, “we were locked out this morning, so we got a little behind.” But no one coordinated lies-we-tell-patients with the physician, because when she apologized her story was, “a couple of patients ran longer than we expected.”

She made up time on me, though—I wasn’t in her presence for five minutes.

(The big laugh was that they wanted me to schedule a six-month check-up. I told them to send me a reminder; but I already have an appointment with another specialist for next week. It’s not like there’s only one dermatology practice in the South Bay.)

Anyhow, the orthopod. Twenty minutes behind the actual appointment time, around eight minutes examining me and telling me I’d need an MRI and a follow-up, and he’s out the door.

But the interesting thing was when I spoke with the woman who schedules the radiology appointments and follow-ups with the physicians: None of the more than 20 MDs working in that practice works more than two-thirds of a day. The last appointment of the day you can get with mine is 1300.

And they schedule four patients for that time slot. Assuming that the doctor is actually running to schedule, that means that you have only a 25% chance of seeing him at the time they specified. Arrogant, disrespectful plonkers.

I hope to God that I don’t have to have a long-term engagement with this guy, because my attitude is going nowhere but downhill.