Going to the doctor

So I escorted my wonderful wife to an arthritis specialist Monday morning. The wait for the appointment was four months.

We arrived promptly to find a waiting room absolutely packed with people wearing coats.
Our appointment was for 10 AM. She was called at 11:30 to pay in advance, then a few minutes later was called to the examination area.

Making clients who all have appointments wait for extended periods of time in a inadequately heated waiting area is extraordinarily offensive. Not only do I find the scenario extremely vulgar, it shows absolute disdain for the clients who pay the facilities salaries.

The implication as I see it is that since everyone in the waiting area is in pain and absolutely needs to see a specialist, they do not say anything for fear that their personal needs will not be addressed if they do. Apparently the doctor either does not recognize this or does not care. He or she found a personal rationalization for their behavior. I think it is a case of scheduling incompetence,greed, lack of professionalism, or indifference. In any other profession this type of conduct would be rewarded with severe consequences.

What it implies is that money is so important to a staff that undoubtedly earns more than almost every one of their clients, is they cannot be bothered to monitor the thermostat to make sure the people who pay their salaries are comfortable. Furthermore, rather than schedule patients in a timely and courteous fashion, they are packed into a time frame that consistently requires everyone except the very first clients of the day to wait for extensive periods of time. (Because they can get away with it.)

As a general observation and based on my experience, a conservative estimate of 40 people a day wait on average a minimum of 60 minutes (we waited 90) for an appointment that everyone in the room has scheduled in advance.

40 people a day waiting 60 minutes is 40 hours a day x 5 days a week = 200 hours x 40 work weeks in a year = 8000 hours. So clients spend 8,000 hours a year wasted waiting to see just one doctor who is obviously unconcerned about their being inconvenienced but very concerned about getting every single person in the door possible.

In some cases the average reasonable person takes off a half day thinking a 10 AM appointment is a 10 AM appointment and they will be back at work in the afternoon. NOT

I am sure these numbers are very conservative.
Their is no excuse.
I think everyone should bill the doctor for any wait of a non – walk in facility at their pay grade.
(Of course the doctor would probably raise his rates in response.

Irritating

Excerpt 2 Kinder/bladder/temperature

Excerpt 2 from my book THIS CAN’T BE RIGHT The Education of an American Teacher. http://www.danoettel.com

A music room was not immediately available and as a
result, I was given a temporary room located in a wing of
the school library. Everything was fine except the room
had a thermostat control problem; and getting the AC
maintenance department to respond promptly was near
impossible. I spent four months teaching in a sixty-seven
degree room.
Had I been teaching in Minnesota it may not have been
a big deal, however in southern Texas it is not uncommon for
children to stay home from school when the temperature is in
low forties. As a matter of fact, one day the Threat of Snow
caused my wife’s school district to take a weather day. Our
students normally began complaining about the temperature in
a classroom if it dropped below 76 degrees.
It would seem a possible solution would have been for
the kids to bring a jacket to school. Unfortunately, many of
the children did not own jackets. To keep them warm, I altered
the curriculum to include numerous movement activities.
Being from a northern state and having a coffee pot in my
room, the temperature did not affect me to anyway near the
same degree as it did the kids, and I always wore a jacket.
There is nothing quite like requiring 20 five and six-year old
children from a subtropical climate to sit on a carpet in a room
that is sixty-seven degrees, for forty-five minutes. You would
have thought everyone of those kids had bladder infections and
it seemed as if at least one child had an accident every single
day, for weeks.
I authorized them to go to the rest room without permission.
I tried taking the whole class to the restroom each period, twice.
No matter what I tried, nothing worked. Sometimes I went home at
the end of the day envisioning conversations I knew parents must
have had with their children concerning music class, the urination
phenomenon, where the music teacher ranked on their favorite
person list, and how to salvage my undeservedly damaged reputation.