Patients should not only get discounted bills, said a patient who told of an orthopedist who regularly kept him waiting for "for up to four hours," but also should be compensated for lost wages. And, he complained, "doctors should buy current magazines. Why are patients subjected to reading 10-year-old copies of Sports Illustrated at the offices of so many physicians? For $100 a year the doctor could stock 10 or 15 current magazines bought cheaply on Amazon."
A pharmacist who regularly posts comments on MedPage Today articles offered an interesting personal waiting room adventure and his own solution:
"In 1968 when I had to take my infant daughter to a dermatologist I called early, told the person who answered that my daughter had diaper rash and how I was treating her. We arrived at the office 15 minutes early, waited more than three hours, and when the doctor finally made her presence known she told me that my daughter had diaper rash, and wrote a prescription for the medication I had told them I was using.
"When I got home, I immediately invoiced the doctor for $75, ignored her bill, and compounded interest monthly. When my bill to her exceeded $100, I started action in small claims court. She paid me."
This very persistent pharmacist/patient, said that since this experience he has always told his doctors "what I would do if kept waiting more than 15 minutes. Other than in cases of emergency, I have never been kept waiting."
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
One doctor said that when his uncle arrived five minutes late for his appointment at a physician's office, the office administrator told the man "that it was too late and that it did not matter why he was late, but to expect a bill for not showing up on time or cancelling with a 24-hour notice."
When the uncle showed up on time for his rescheduled appointment, he had to wait two hours for the doctor to arrive with only this explanation from the office administrator: "the doctor was just running a little behind."
The waiting time plus the explanation, "kind of sent him over the edge," the doctor explained. So his uncle told the doctor's assistant that he was "going to bill the physician's office for his time and lack of medical attention. The administrator dismissed his comment and told him he was free to go to another doctor to be taken care of if he was not happy with the attention he was receiving."
The doctor who shared this account with MedPage Today concluded, "This lack of respect is what gives many of us a bad name, making patients feel like we are superior to them and think that our time is more valuable than theirs, alienating us from our patients."
With permission of MedPage,
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