Waiting for the Doctor, and Then Waiting Some More

I’ll get right to the point: I had a 1:30 pm appointment with my gastroenterologist yesterday. It took months to get this appointment. One mjor survey found that average wait times for an appointment with a physician have increased significantly since it was first conducted in 2004, and since it was last conducted in 2017. In the 15 large metro markets covered by the survey, the average delay in 2022 was 26.0 days, up 8 percent from 24.1 days in 2017, and up 24 percent from 20.9 days in 2004.

I arrived at my appointment on time. When I was in the waiting room, a nurse came out after about 10 minutes to tell me the doctor was running about 10 minutes late. Okay, I thought, no big deal. After about 10 minutes more, the doctor emerged to bring me back to the exam room and take my vital signs. By that point it was 2:00 pm. I had a 3:00 pm counseling session scheduled back home, and it takes me about a half-hour to get there. The clock kept creeping forward.

At 2:20 pm, I gathered my things and opened the door to the exam room, figuring that even if the doctor came back in now, it wouldn’t be much of an appointment. I ran into one of the doctor’s staff.

“Are you done?” she asked.

“No, I haven’t even started,” I told her. “I’ve been waiting for 50 minutes. I had a 1:30 appointment.”

She looked at her watch.

“I have to go,” I told her.

“You have to go to the…