Keeping people waiting

I learn so much from my experiences in health care offices.

Recently I had an appointment at a dermatologist for some treatment. As I understood the procedure, first a chemical is applied, then it is left for an hour then the laser is applied to activate the chemical.

Based on that I guessed that I’d be in the office for roughly 90 minutes and planned my day accordingly.

After 2 hours of sitting around I had to leave and so did not get the treatment I’d come for. Frustrating, and a waste of time.

Here is how I used to handle the issue of time in my office to show maximum respect to my patients.

1. Give an estimate of time involved.
   You cannot expect patients to have open-ended time availability. I always said to my patients something like: “Next time you come you will be here for 90 minutes.” That way they knew how long to block off in their calendar.

2. Run on time.
   I hated running late and so knew how long all my procedures took. Do you know how long all your procedures take? In my office it was very rare to ever run more than 5 minutes late. Mostly we saw patients precisely at the time they were booked in.

3. If for some reason you do run late, apologise and tell the patient how long the delay will be. Keep patients informed. Patients hate sitting around with no idea how much longer they have to wait. Not once, during my wait did anyone keep me informed.

4. Offer to reschedule if the delay is longer than 15 minutes.
   Not everyone can sit around all day when you run late. Patients have busy lives too and are not just there for your convenience.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to behave when you are running late.

Handled right you can keep patients on side. Handled wrong you can seriously annoy patients.