Before my office was so rudely relocated a couple of years ago (crimeny–has it been that long already?!?), I worked a lovely 12 minutes from my home. My primary care physician was on my way home, and the specialist I have to see every 3 months when things are going well (more often if they’re not) was across the freeway and the first right. Very convenient. I could schedule a doctor’s appointment for lunchtime or late morning, use that as my lunch break, and be back at the office with no trouble.
Then we moved. I now work 35-40 minutes from home if there is no traffic, and my primary care doctor and my specialist have not changed locations. This means that I have to miss a substantial little chunk of work in order to make my appointments. Today I had to see the specialist. My appointment was at 2:45. I left the office at 2:04. I arrived at the doctor’s office with 10 minutes to spare, since there was no traffic. And I checked in, paid my co-pay, and sat down and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. I finally got called back at 3:45. Yes, people, I could have stayed at work until 3:04, which would have left me with only 1/2 hour to make up instead of 1 1/2 hours.
This particular specialist isn’t the kind who gets called out on emergencies. In fact, I don’t even see the physician himself; I see a nurse practitioner. All she does all day is have brief appointments with people for meds checks. I get that appointments can still lag a little bit, but an hour? My time is valuable to me, and it’s definitely valuable to my employer. I resent having to wait in their office for an entire hour (thank you, nook, for making that hour as painless as possible) and having to make up an additional hour and a half at work that wasn’t necessary.
There’s got to be a better way to deal with this. I can’t just zip out at lunch anymore, and I’m never lucky enough to get the first-thing-in-the-morning appointments. I wonder if I called to see if she was running on schedule, if they’d honestly tell me she was running an hour behind, so that I could check in later and not have to rush so. But if I didn’t check in on time, would I lose my appointment?
I’m going to call their office and ask them that question before my next appointment which is, thankfully, three months down the road.
Sorry for the whinge.
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