#1

I read an article in the Times not long ago speculating about whether the American public is crankier than usual these days. I'm not feeling especially cranky, but I have to admit that the small, easily correctable or avoidable stuff is really starting to get on my nerves. So here goes #1 on my personal Top 10 List of Stuff We Really Shouldn't Have to Deal With.

DOCTOR'S OFFICE WAITING ROOMS.

We've all experienced that particular brand of torture laughingly known as the doctor's appointment. Dictionary.com defines appointment as:
1.a fixed mutual agreement for a meeting; engagement:

2.a meeting set for a specific time or place.

 

When's the last time you had a doctor's appointment that fit this description?

 

Last Friday, I flew out of my office, leaving myriad details of my work day in disarray, in order to make a 1:15 appointment down the road. Foolishly, I failed to call ahead to determine whether the doctor was running on time (hah!) and exactly how long a wait I would be expected to endure.Since the error in foresight was mine, I broke my standard personal rule and agreed to wait up to 45 minutes. 45 minutes later, the lady who had been waiting 2 hours was finally called to occupy one of the several treatment rooms, where I was positive she would continue to wait - but without her clothes, virtually trapping her there. (sidebar: I once got up from an exam table, got dressed, and took my records and my business elsewhere from a doctor I had been seeing for 20 years).

 

I decided on the spot to leave and reschedule, although the next available "appointment" was not until the end of February. But this time I took the first appointment of the day, and I fully intend to arrive ahead of schedule to beat out anyone else with the same strategy. 

The real question, of course, is not whether we'll win the waiting game, but why we need to play it at all. If everyone ran their businesses that way, nothing would ever get done.

I propose a new rule that would level the playing field a bit. For every 15-minute increment I spend in the waiting room past my appointed time, I will bill the doctor the same rate I bill my clients.That's probably the only prescription that would cure this particular ill.