Announcing the opening of

I began making mental excuses
for the doctor's tardiness, despite
the fact that this was not the first
time "Dr. A" had kept me wait-
ing. He was as chronically late
as I was habitually early.
I told myself he was delayed
because of an emergency, or
maybe he was embroiled in
lunch-hour consultation with a
colleague about a critically ill pa-
tient.
At the 60-minute mark, I went
to the counter and asked the re-
ceptionist about the delay. She
said the doctor wasn't even in the
office yet.
Then she added, "It shouldn't
be much longer, just have a seat,
dear."
The other four patients also
waiting for Dr. A already were
grousing. We found ourselves
forming a loose-knit, anti-wait-
ing support group. We spent the
next half-hour telling each oth-
er of other "famous" waits that
Dr. A had put us through.
There is, however, only a mod-
icum of relief in the "misery loves
company" theory.
As the storytelling waned, I
overheard a nurse tell the re-
ceptionist that Dr. A had just
come in, but he was returning
telephone calls.
That sent me over the edge.
As the minutes ticked by, I was
transformed into a clock-watch-
ing, toe-tapping patient who was
oh-so-tired of being patient.
At the two-hour mark, I made
my decision.
I went to the receptionist and
said, "I'm leaving and I'm never
coming back. I'm going to find
another doctor — one who will
be on time and keep his ap-
pointments."
I left in a huff, blood pressure
and heart rate no doubt peaking
at maximum levels.
I did not blame the reception-
ist, realizing she has only so
much control. No, I took Dr. A's
tardiness very personally. I re-
member thinking, "Who does he
think he is? Does he think his
time is more important than
mine?"
The question then is — why?
Why is it that some doctors are
always "running late," while oth-
ers are usually within 15 min-
utes of being on time?
It has to do with instructions
that doctors give their staff, the
patient load, the nature of the
business of medicine, a physi-
cian's specialty and quirks of fate.
Many patients don't under-
stand their role in the schedul-
ing of appointments, said Dr.
John Fisk, an orthopedic surgeon
with Southern Illinois Universi
ty School of Medicine.
A doctor's office schedule is a
finely tuned instrument that can
go out of sync the moment the
first patient is late.
Office staff, often following the
doctor's instructions, base their
decisions about how much time

patients need on the diagnosis
and what patients say when they
call for an appointment.
That's the reason for questions
like: "What seems to be the trou-
ble?" or "Why did you want to see
the doctor?"
Says Dr. Fisk, "We're not al-
ways able to determine that over
the phone when they make the
appointment with the front
desk."
Dr. Fisk said he tries very
hard not to keep patients wait-
ing, the result "of spending 10
years in private practice and be-
ing frustrated by the lack of re-
sponse to the needs of the
patients."
When patients do have to wait
for him, Dr. Fisk said he always
apologizes.
"I'm always surprised when
I hear a patient say they heard
a physician apologize for being
late," he said.
While he was in private prac-
tice, Dr. Fisk's salary and that of
his staff depended upon the
number of patients seen. He had
a policy of not charging patients
who waited more than one hour.
Although he never docked any-
one's salary, Dr. Fisk said staff
members soon realized how se-
rious he was about staying on
time.

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"Does he
think his
time is more
important
than mine?"

In a clinic setting, such as at
SIU, patients and doctors often
don't know each other, which can
put a doctor behind schedule, Dr.
Fisk said.
A doctor who knows his pa-
tients "knows which ones have
special needs, unique personali-
ties and can't be rushed through
quickly," he said.
"A new patient always re-
quires more time than a return-
ing patient," Dr. Fisk said.
Some patients are reluctant to
discuss their reasons for an ap-
pointment with office staff But
they often are the same people
who, once in the examination
room, want to talk at length
about any number of ailments,
said Dr. Tracy Lower, a pedia-
trician with SRI who says she's
"compulsive" about being on
time.
She said parents often call for
an appointment for one child,
then bring along another for her
to examine.
"They say, 'While we're here,
could you look at (the other child)
who has these other problems?'
That can realy put you behind
schedule," she says.

DOCTORS page 60

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