Drs Appt wait times

[Sheherezade]

I've found a lot of variablility in the practices we've used. Some are fantastic businesses and other are run poorly. All of these have been civilian. Our practice in Boston was huge and had all the great things you can have with a huge practice (24 hour coverage, in house Xray, pharmacy, labs). It had none of the downsides of a large practice. Here, I go to a large group that has ALL the problems of a large practice and none of the benefits. It reeks. I'm fed up, but haven't tried to move yet. In Baltimore, we went to two separate small one-doc practices. One was good, the other bad in terms of customer service. In all our experience, the doctors have been good but the business models differ. I think there is a lot of variability. Even with government sponsered medicine, I would guess you still get that based on who's in charge. Doctors are not usually the best businessmen. (In fact, I once read an interview with a big time con man that said doctors were his favorite target. All that income, no business sense. Beware! )

"I know I'm not your regular physician but your son looks like he's ready to go home so would you mind seeing me?"

That was really, really nice!

When I am not missing work (when working) and I'm covered with enough time for a babysitter, I don't mind waiting a bit either. IF I remember to bring something good to read. Last time I forgot I was stuck waiting for an hour, trying to find my sitter's cellphone number (good thing I told her not to bother answering our phone!), looking at year old Reader's Digest magazines. That was they day (of course!) that I also got a medical student and two pap smears...if you count the attempt by the student. Never again.

Here, I go to a large group that has ALL the problems of a large practice and none of the benefits. It reeks. I'm fed up, but haven't tried to move yet.

Angie - Green Road Pediatrics is fabulous (hopefully it's not who you're fed up with). It would be a bit of a haul for you (probably 15/20 min), but totally worth it IMO. Dr. Kelly Joyce is a goddess. If you go, tell her I love her and I miss her. I cried when I left her.

[DCJenn]

for you military people, remember, TriCare is run by Civilians. Just like housing, and payroll and all of the other critical stuff that gets all screwed up and takes forever to fix.

J.

[mommax3]

I have to agree with what has been said about the military. IMO, the smaller the base, the worse the conditions are, and it is almost assuredly not the physician's fault. As far as my experiences have been......my OB/Gyn stuff was awesome since DH was in the dept., so even though he rarely was able to come to appts. with me, I was treated well. Peds was great in San Antonio because early on DH got the name of a contract (civilian) pediatrician and the boys saw her exclusively.....she even gave me her pager number so she could make my appts. directly. The only pain there was that she had no control over the shot clinic, so there I was at the mercy of the system. (Yes, there was a separate clinic for shots, with a separate staff and a separate wait time......but that was only true in San Antonio, which serves a HUGE number of military dependents.....probably true in other similarly-sized military areas as well) At Sheppard, our peds appts. went fine once DH and I made friends with one of the pediatricians! Hey, it was a perk and I took full advantage! And if it was at all possible for DH to pick up our prescriptions while in uniform (because in uniform he could jump to the front of the ever-present line) I would ask him to, so I didn't have to stand there with the kids in line, along with all of the military retirees in North Texas! So many times I wished I could just go to Walgreens! But, it was free......

I was a civilian for pregnancy #1 and until DS#1 was 2, and I much preferred it. I even went to the WIC office for my son's shots, since we were poor and our insurance coverage was not great......it was better than the military shot clinic in terms of efficiency, and this was in Indianapolis, not exactly a small town.

Sally

I've found that being in a small town has really had an effect on the way the medical offices are run here. They seem to make a conscientious effort to ensure that patients don't have to wait long. I think this is probably due to the fact that patients who were unhappy by a long wait have been known to write letters to the editor of the local newspaper and blast whichever doctor made them wait (seriously, it's that small of a town.) Likewise, patients who were happy with their experiences have written letters to the paper in praise of their doctors. DH's group is even talking about initiating a program where if an ER patient is not seen within 15 minutes of check-in, the patient will be compensated a certain dollar amount. I really don't know how this will ever work because you can't plan when patients will show up to the ER. And personally, I think if you show up to the ER complaining of a hang nail, you deserve to wait. :>