Doctor Appointment

I took my 5 year old to his ENT doctor on Friday for his final check-up. He had to have tubes put in his ears over two years ago when some antibiotic-resistant bacteria landed in his ear. Since we have been going to see this specialist every 6 months for the past two years or so, I have learned the hard way to only take very early morning appointments. Otherwise, you will wait a very long time.

So, I make the appointment for 8:30am. We get there precisely at 8:30am. I see there are three people already signed in ahead of us. One at 8:00am and two at 8:15am. I am feeling pretty good at this point. We might actually be out of here by 9:00am. We take a seat and wait to be called up to register.

At 8:35am, I see the doctor arrive with coffee in hand. No emergency or anything - just strolling through with the coffee. Before I continue this story, let me say that I love our ENT doctor. He is fabulous with my son and an extremely qualified doctor. But, if I had strolled into work 35 minutes late for two different meetings with no excuse other than I needed to get some coffee when I was working, there would have been a few repurcussions. Of course, I was not a doctor and not a specialist.

We get called up at 8:45 am to register. I give all the information and the co-pay and then ask the woman behind the desk how much longer she thought I would have to wait. She said, "Your doctor is running on time." I then said, "Well, my appointment was for 8:30am and it is now 8:45am, so what does on time mean here?" She looked at the clock, and then looked at me, and then looked at the clock again. She honestly looked perplexed - as if she had never been asked about the time of an appointment before. After a few seconds of being flustered, she said she would take the chart right back and it should be very quick.

We get called back to see the doctor 35 mintues later. We saw the doctor himself 45 minutes later.