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?".