Oh, the waiting...

[smoop]

I'm a little peeved and not quite sure it it's justified or not. Since Ana has been born I have become accustomed to waiting. With all the doctors appts it's pretty much to be expected that you're just going to wait. So we sit.. and wait.

I can understand waiting for doctors.. they are busy. But should be have to wait on a regular basis to be seen by our physical therapist? Shouldn't they be able to keep a fairly tight schedule? So say they schedule a patient for 1:00 and that patient doesn't show up until 1:15.. that patient should expect a shorter session, right?

I'm not sure if our therapist even has a patient right before us but she is consistently late for our appt. We ALWAYS show up on time and she is usually 10-15 minutes late. Today she was about 20 mins late which cuts into our session. So am I justified in being annoyed? Do I tell her or just deal with it?

[Kari]

We do a lot of waiting as well, but the one place we don't wait is for therapy appointments. All of our OT, PT, and speech therapists have set patient schedules, and they are always on time. If a patient is a half hour late, they still end the session at the scheduled time so the next patient is still on time.

[apack1999]

Our PT is always on time as well, if not early when we arrive early. If she's ever going to be late, she actually tells us she may be late the next week. It's the one appointment I can count on to walk in 2-5 minutes before our appointment time and know that I'll be in there within 2-5 minutes. The others I get there 15 minutes early just so I can get in within 15 minutes AFTER appointment time--for some reason they have to verify insurance EVERY SINGLE TIME...which is why it takes so long. Or so they say....

[LisaJoy]

If this is a consistent thing, then I think you should talk to her about it -- especially if she is cutting Analise's sessions short. Another option is to always try to get the first appointment of the day! That's what I do with doctor and dentist alike -- if you're first, they haven't had a chance to get behind yet.

[Liznjohn]

You are perfectly justified to be annoyed. Doctors really cannot know how complex a patient is going to be until he/she walks into the treatment room. Even patients with whom Doctors are familiar with blindside them with a "new" or "unforeseen" problem then the day is behind.

Therapist usually don't have that issue. They have a "plan of care" usually supervised by the Dr. . This gives their schedule much more predictability.

The only precaution I must give you is if you go to a specialized rehab. facility for children with complex problems. These type of facilities do run behind due to the complexity of each patient. But a standard therapists office would be poorly run if they are consistently behind. Waiting constantly is unacceptable in this situation.

You are right to speak up.

John