Is my irritation unreasonable?

[pegkerr]

I made an appointment with a doctor for 7:40 a.m. this morning. This is a short appointment which occurs every one to three months and has for, um, the past eight years or so (I think???). I like the early morning appointments because I don't have to take any time off work.

I got there and waited. Gradually, it became clear that the doctor hadn't arrived, and the 7:00 a.m. and 7:20 a.m. appointment were still waiting, too. The 7:20 a.m. lady called the back office, discovered that the doctor thought his appointments didn't start today until 8:00, decided she couldn't wait any longer, and left in a snit.

I called and checked the home voice mail; yes, the doctor's office had called to confirm that the appointment was TODAY at 7:40 A.M. I decided to wait until the doctor showed up.

8:00 a.m. doctor arrives, along with the person seeing him at 8:00 a.m. He announces, "I don't see patients on Tuesdays before 8:00 a.m.," (like I was supposed to know that?) beckoned forward the 8:00 a.m. patient (rather than the 7:00 a.m. patient or me, who had been waiting longer) and disappeared.

The office manager appeared and fell all over herself to apologize. "It was clearly an error made with front desk scheduling and I am so, so sorry."

My jaw, I'll admit, was still hanging a bit. "Wow. You mean he isn't even going to be seeing us today? Even though we were here first, even though your office confirmed it? We have to come back another day?"

"Yes, I'm sorry." She set up another early morning appointment for me three weeks from now. It turns out I have enough medication to get me through till then ("but call me back if you don't," the office manager said, still groveling, "and I'll take care of it,") but still.

"Please confirm with the doctor," I said with a touch of coldness, "that he'll be there at that time.

"Yes, I'll be sure to go over his schedule with him."

Is it unreasonable for the 7:00 a.m. appointment and me to expect that he would see us first? I guess if we were seen today, his other patients throughout the day would have to wait an extra forty minutes instead of having two of his patients (me and Ms. 7:00 a.m.) wait another three weeks, when we'd been promised an appointment today.

Either way, irritated as I was, I also felt a little sorry for the office manager. What a sucky way to start her day, to have all these patients--and probably the doctor--mad at her before she even arrives at work.

What do you think?

Edited to add: It turns out he had later openings today, and Ms. 7:00 a.m. elected to make an appointment for 11:00 a.m. I declined to come back at 11:20 a.m. because I didn't want to miss yet more work since I've been missing so much work with doctor's appointments for Delia. So they would have worked us in today, but we would have had to come back/miss work. Does this get them off the hook?

Also, Ms. 7:20 a.m. who left was furious, saying she hadn't seen him in four months because they've screwed up her appointment three times.

porphyrin, I'd really like you to weigh in on this situation.

Comments

[tassie-gal.livejournal.com]

Not unreasonable at all....I mean they CONFIRMED it didnt they?
Mind you my GP is USELESS at getting in on time - let alone RUNNING on time, but his patients are used to it and between us and his secretary there is a system in place to stop the waiting!
I'd be chewing out the office manager BIG time - but then I'm bad like that...

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

I think unreasonable on your part would have involved pulling out a sledge hammer and trashing the office.

The doctor's behavior was both unreasonable and unprofessional, and a complaint should be registered.

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

No, you were definitely not unreasonable, and that is HORRIBLE service from your doctor - no matter if it was his 'fault' or not.

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

I think the doctor's behavior was inexcusable. Whatever he might prefer, the fact is that he had patients scheduled and waiting for him and he should have seen them first. Jeez. If I behaved like that, I'd get fired. (Well, probably not, actually, but I'd at least get a letter of reprimand placed in my personnel file.)

[jbru.livejournal.com]

No, you're irritation isn't unreasonable. I would be irritated in a similar position. I might take my business elsewhere, but then I don't form attachments to particular physicians.

[chamisa.livejournal.com]

Unreasonable? No. I would be using a much, much stronger word than "irritation" to describe how I would be feeling. In my opinion, either a complaint to the doctor himself when you actually see him next or serious consideration to getting a new doctor is in order. It was an error, yes, but it seems like he didn't care, and that's just not cool. He could have apologized himself--and, made it work out so that everyone would have to wait a bit more that day but would at least be seen.

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

Something similar happened during one of my many OB/GYN visits last year (II arrived at the appointed and confirmed time, only to find I was somehow not on the schedule), and the office and physician were very accommodating and added me to the schedule. I think your doc should certainly have done the same for you.

[sternel.livejournal.com]

I think, were I you, I'd be calling them weekly, and then daily, to confirm your next appointment. Not to do their work for them...just to be a bee in their bonnet.

[(Anonymous)]

It's not unreasonable at all; what happened is a classic power struggle between a physician and his office staff. Rather than treat patients -- customers -- with anything like appropriate service, physicians foist that onto their office staff. He was punishing his staff, publicly and in a very demeaning fashion, for making an error, and for making them face the (absolutely reasonable) wrath of the patients.

Another example of the failings of our healthcare system: because there are too few doctors to treat all of the individuals needing care, General Practitioners and Specialists alike, the physician-attitude of "I'm the important one" is reinforced by every circumstance. Now, the majority of people who go into the healthcare field are compassionate people. For the small percentage that are power-tripping asshats, the nature of the system permits their behavior by not offering any consequences.

Lissa

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

I agree--and that sounds like someone I wouldn't at all want to be my doctor!

[aome.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was REALLY shitty for him not to take the first arrivals. You were there, you are his responsibility to take care of, you are ON the schedule. It was a mistake, yes, but brushing you off like that was inexcusable. How attached are you to this doctor? Because I would seriously consider taking my business elsewhere after a snub like that.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I don't think you're being unreasonable, but unlike the other commenters, I don't think the doctor is, either. I think he was not as polite about it as he should have been, but I see his point in not wanting all the rest of his day's schedule to run forty minutes behind (and it would have been an hour behind if the third person had stayed) because his office staff made a mistake.

Suppose that he sees an average of three patients an hour for eight hours. He would be inconveniencing 24 patients during the rest of the day to avoid inconveniencing 2 or 3 who were booked before his office hours.

My guess is that this is not the first time the office staff has screwed up, and he's tired of it.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do see that point. It's just kind of a sucky situation all around.

[schnoogle.livejournal.com]

Agreed! It really annoys me to see people blaming doctors for things beyond their control.

(I'm in the third year of an undergraduate medical degree, by the way. It seems relevant. ^^)

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

I agree! Not the best way to interact with patients that were just as frustrated as he was, but as someone who has their schedule controlled by office personnel that continuously disregard anything I say, or do (such as not come in until 10am every Wednesday for the last 2 years, and then randomly notice that I have a 9am appointment on a Wednesday), or refuses to communicate issues or last minute changes, I can sympathize with the doctor a bit.

But, as a patient, I'd be extremely irritated regardless.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Totally not okay. If he had open appointments at 11 and 11:20, he could've caught up with his schedule then.

I think Lissa is right and he was punishing his office staff for making scheduling errors. But that's not acceptable treatment of patients. He has a duty of care towards you.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

What an asshat. I don't care if his office staff have screwed up multiple times, if he never sees patients on Tuesdays before 8 am, he could have summoned an ounce of customer service and actually interacted with you in a civilized, polite, and apologetic way.

[(Anonymous)]

No kidding.

[kokopoko.livejournal.com]

Call the state board of doctors/etc. That is bull. When my doctor's office called me at home to tell me the appointment was cancelled, I of course was at work and never got the message. I took off work, drove 30 minutes to not even see the doctor. Next visit I told the doctor and he waived my copay due to the staff mistake.

But if the doctor himself is the jerk, get a new doctor and report him to the board of doctors/medicine. There's no reason for a jerk to act like that.

[schnoogle.livejournal.com]

Maybe a better first port of call would be the doctor himself? He's a human being, it was early in the morning, and he's just turned up at work to find a storm brewing. Sometimes people say things off the cuff and don't realise that they've offended.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

He did look a bit groggy. My guess is that he's not exactly an early morning person.

[brigidsblest.livejournal.com]

Not only is your irritation not unreasonable, the doctor was an asshat. He should be the one to apologize to you, not the office manager. (Yes, I know, it'll never happen, but still.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

Why not the office manager? I agree that the doctor was rude and could have been more accommodating, but the office manager made the appointment and confirmed the appointment by mistake.

[brigidsblest.livejournal.com]

I tend to think, and I could be wrong, that if this was a long-standing policy of the doctor (never to see patients before 8), that it's unlikely the office manager would still have been making an error in scheduling people at that time. This tends to lead me to believe that it was a recent change, and probably a poorly-communicated one at that.

But if I'm wrong, then both of them should apologize. Error or not, there was no call for that sort of rudeness.

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

I agree they should both apologize, and the rudeness is uncalled for. Miscommunications happen, and it sucks to be the patient caught in the middle.

I simply didn't jump to the conclusion that this was a new policy, as this happens a lot in MY office (not medical!), and even when I do have a long standing policy, our particular office personnel tends to acknowledge sporadically, and there are times that out and out passive-aggressive dynamics come into play when it comes to my calendar and/or relaying phone messages. It's easy to make a supervisor look like a fool or simply negligent by double-booking, not giving messages, etc. I am not currently in a very happy work environment, so that definitely effected my perspective when reading the post!

Also, I'm a big one for apologies all around, it's not just about blame or responsibility, it's about having some empathy that extends to the person that was inconvenienced. If the doctor had just acknowledged the situation and had some remorse about the patients having to reschedule, it would have gone a long way. Likewise, I think the office manager was right in handling the situation, regardless of where the fault lied, in apologizing and working to accommodate prescription needs and rescheduling.

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

I think you need to find another doctor.

He doesn't care enough about his patients to be flexible when there is a scheduling SNAFU. If it's happened before, he is either not a good enough communicator to make his scheduling preferences clear to the staff, or he is a bad manager.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I've twice (in three months) had doctors *forget* to come release people from the hospital, so I, who had come to take them home, spent the whole day sitting there, finally getting them tracked down in operating rooms or offices. I will say they had a better attitude, but still.

Yours sounds horrible. That alone would make me want to change doctors.

Rate MDs

[tesla-aldrich.livejournal.com]

In case you're interested: RateMDs.com allows patients to rate and read about their doctors and dentists. This is a fairly new website, so please help others by adding your doctors and rating them!

Re: Rate MDs

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

Nice site. I just added my current doctor (who is a goddess when it comes to dealing with my fibro, CFS, migraines, chronic other things) and my former neurologist (who is a god when dealing with a migraining patient).

[febobe.livejournal.com]

No, it most certainly does NOT get them off the hook. That was positively rude and inexcusable. It's the kind of behavior that would make me consider changing drs if I could (which I realise, however, may not be an option, insurance and logistics and such being what they are these days). That was what I would consider snobbery on the doc's part; I don't blame the office manager so much as I do the doc. Regardless of who's guilty, however, that's just plain inappropriate.

And that's coming from someone who halfway lives at doctor's offices a lot of the time.

Ridiculous.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I would say that this probably indicates that the doctor and his staff don't get along so well, and that's probably a reflection on his personality at least, if not his professionalism.

[bohemianspirit.livejournal.com]

I can see where the doctor would feel torn between seeing the first patients first and seeing the patient at 8 who was scheduled at 8, and I can see where the responsibility for the error falls on scheduling rather than on him (unless he was responsible for miscommunicating with scheduling). On the other hand, you WERE approved and confirmed for the appointment, and to make you come to the office for nothing DID inconvenience you, and I would expect that SOME kind of recognition and concern would be forthcoming from your doctor, and that SOME kind of effort at compromise--or compensation--would be made.

I'm appalled that your doctor behaved so rudely to you. His manner suggests that he doesn't really give a damn about you, or about any of his patients, as an individual, just as work to be done according to his schedule. So I would add an emphatic voice to the chorus suggesting you consider finding a more empathetic, patient-friendly physician. If, by chance, this doctor treats you for anything related to depression, I doubly emphasize the suggestion, and would be doubly appalled at his callous indifference to you and his other patients.