Everyone hates waiting in a doctors office. Most of the time our providers see our patients on-time, but from time-to-time a provider may run behind. We deeply appreciate our patients and make every effort to ensure our patients are seen on-time. Your patience and understanding is deeply valued.
Here are the most common scenarios in which a provider may run late.
Emergencies- Due to the nature of our work, unplanned, emergent and unavoidable telephone calls regarding a patient in the hospital or at home occur. All of our physician providers perform rounds at the hospital, consult on patients and perform procedures in the operating room. At times, an emergency may arise which requires immediate attention.
Patient Care- Everyday we deliver information to patients, which can be confirmation of a serious issue, unexpected clinical findings, recurence of a disease or poor prognosis. All are examples of difficult communication, which must be communicated by our health care team. Often this requires spending more time to ensure the patient understands and providing compassionate measures.
Unknowns- Sometimes a patient will be scheduled for a 15-minute appointment that turns into 45-minutes after learning new patient information that must be addressed and cannot wait for another appointment to be scheduled.
