Waiting

Abstract

The schedule was full and the patients were stacked back-to-back every 20 minutes. Not bad for a general practice, but with wheelchairs, gurneys, and slow tortoise-like strides of the confused meandering into the unfamiliar, it may as well have been 5-minute visits. The onerous check-in, endless validation of insurance cards, and collection of co-pays with the subsequent querying of medications and concerns of others—the goal at the end being to share with your doctor your concerns is truncated and rushed. This is only magnified by the patient who repeatedly “no-shows” and has now arrived 40 minutes late. The factory line has been disrupted; the conveyor belt is broken. It starts with the front office staff wondering and going up the chain of command; “Should we reschedule?” “Can we fit them in?” “What is our policy?” “They have no showed 3 times in the past.” “What is the patient’s responsibility in all of this?”