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How long is your average wait before you actually see your pediatrician?

3K views 22 replies 23 participants last post by  OkiMom 
#1 ·
I have 2 yr old twins and have been to the dr about 3-4 times in the last 6 weeks. My appts have always been in the morning, 10 or 10:30......One time the wait was 1 hr, and the other two were 45 minutes......each time they said they were sorry, that there was a really sick kid that had come in. I think it is ridiculous.....how can you be an hour behind when it opens at 9? The last time we went we got called in to a room after 15 minutes, but than sat 30 before the dr came..........I'm considering changing to a different dr for this reason.....I went in for my annual appt and was out 30 min after my scheduled time....my kids wouldn't have even gotten in by then......I can see once in a while yes, maybe there was a sick kid that needed extra attention......what are your thoughts and how long do you wait in the waiting room? Is this normal to have a long wait or I am just impatient?
 
#2 ·
We usually make the first or second appointment in the morning and the wait in the waiting room is betwen 5-15 minutes. Once we are in the examination room, however, sometimes we wait for up to 30min for the doctor to come in.
 
#4 ·
One of the reasons I love our pediatrician is I have never waited more than 10 minutes total. I usually schedule the first appt. of the day , but even when I haven't It has been 5 or less in the waiting room and 5 or less in the examine room
 
#5 ·
I refuse to wait longer than 30 minutes for any doctor unless I was told upon signing in that the Dr was running late. I just leave the waiting room and tell the receptionist that I need to reschedule for a time when the doctor actually has an opening.

:
This is my big pet peeve.
 
#6 ·
I have an wonderful, wonderful pediatrician. That said, we do have to wait sometimes. Not often! Most of the time I get to see her at the appointment time or 10 minutes after the appointment time. I usually schedule either the first or second appointment of the day. Or right after lunch.
But I think she's mostly on schedule no matter when the appointment. She has a very small practice that she runs out of her house.

Edited to Add: I'd drop any doctor who consistently made me wait like you are describing. In fact, one of the reasons I dropped my OB (and went to a mid wife) when I was pregnant is because I was constantly sitting in that damn waiting room! I am so glad that I dropped that OB!
 
#7 ·
Our current ped is about 5-15 minutes.
Our previous ped was about 2-10 minutes.
Once, when we went on a saturday for urgent care hours, it was about a 25 minute wait.
 
#12 ·
We see a family doc but our wait is usually less than 10 minutes. Rarely it's been 20 minutes but that only really happens Monday morning or Friday afternoon. I usually make our appts that aren't emergencies for 8am Tuesday-Thursday, right when they open.
 
#13 ·
I think we had to wait 45 minutes once, and we don't schedule start of the day appointments. We normally have a 15 to 20 minute wait, at the most. I won't stay with a practice where I was waiting 45 minutes to an hour each time, it is just to long and DS would never be willing to stay in one area that long.
 
#14 ·
For a well visit (scheduled in advance) the wait is about an hour. For sick visits (appointment made same day) it's AT LEAST 2 hours. We see a holistic ped and her practice is the only one of its kind in the whole NE side of the state. Additionally, she spends an enormous amount of time with each patient and I really appreciate that. It's tough, but we plan for it with snacks and toys.
 
#16 ·
At the ped we have waited anywhere from 5 mins to 25 mins but the longer wait time is very rare.

At the hematologist, though.... When DS was just a month or so old, we had an appt at 1pm and didn't leave the office til 5pm and saw the doctor about 4:00 or so. Granted, there, there are sertious emergencies with children who have cancer and other terrible disorders, but we learned to make our appts late in the afternoon there. If your appt is at 3:30 and the office closes at 5, you bet you won't be waiting 3 hours to see the doc.
 
#18 ·
we've never waited more than 15 minutes. there is a sign at the reception desk stating if you have been waiting more than 20 minutes to please inform them. I shudder to think of having a sick kid and waiting sitting around a waiting room waiting for the ped!
 
#19 ·
I go to a 1 pediatrician office and there is never a wait for a well visit - maybe 5 minutes for a sick visit during the height of cold/flu season. He comes to the waiting room to get us so no wait once we are called.

Just the other day we went for a well visit with my twins. We were about 15 minutes early for our appointment and so he took us early and we were in and out by our appointment time. I can't imagine having to wait an hour with two year old twins. I shudder at the thought.
 
#20 ·
We only have to wait in the waiting area for usually no more than 10 minutes. However, once we're back in the exam room, it takes FOREVER! I would much rather wait in the waiting area where DD can play with the toys and books they have rather than having her in a cold exam room where she can't touch anything.
 
#21 ·
I know-- it's like they want you out of the way so you don't have to be around potentially sick kids... but there was a potentially sick kid in the room just before us, right? And my DD FREAKS OUT once we go in the back room, after five minutes maybe. If they just took us back there when the doc was ready then we'd be fine. As it is, I'm DONE with peds unless she's REALLY REALLY sick b/c of this very issue.

Granted, I'll wait half an hour to two hours for my OB but he is the bee's knees (a midwife in OB's clothing
) and that's just the one cost of seeing him. I know he'll sit and really talk with every patient-- including me once it's my turn, and he gets behind when he has to run over to deliver a baby. It's worth it in that case. Much better than the OB I had before who lied about how it was so rare to wait-- I waited soooooo long every time, and he was a jerk anti-natural birth OB.

I really dislike the whole thing where if you are two seconds late for an appt they will charge you and make you rebook it, but then the doctor can keep you waiting for an hour.
 
#22 ·
When we go for a well check (scheduled months in advance), it takes forever. If it's for one of my singleton's, we've never left the office in less than an hour and forty five minutes. If it's for my twins, we've never left in less than two hours. It's ridiculous and it drives me crazy. I really like the ped and the nurses though. I'm not quite sure what the problem is. Especially since lots of times there aren't many (or any) people in the waiting room.

I don't want to switch doctors because we had a crappy ped with a very short wait time and the other options really aren't options for us. Our ped is supportive of our vegetarian diet, extended breastfeeding and co-sleeping and that's important to us. I have wondered if maybe next time we're there, if I should ask her if there is something we could do to help with our appointment time. I honestly have no idea what in the world could always cause such a delay.

It really frustrates me because it isn't easy to get four young children out the door and to an appointment on time. It makes me feel like they feel my time isn't as valuable.
 
#23 ·
Depends on what time of the day it is.. If its the first appointment I go right from the vitals room to the exam room and the doctor is there in between 5-15 minutes. If its later in the day then Ive waited up to a half an hour for a doctor. Only one time did I wait longer and there was probably a good 20-30 kids sick waiting in the waiting room (there was a cold/flu outbreak). The corpmen had me wait in another room so DD wasn't exposed to the illness and get sick since we were only there for a well visit checkup. Even then it was 40 minutes and they had told me it was going to be a long time when I checked in.

For my appointment I think the longest Ive waited to be weighed and taken to a room is 2-5 minutes. The longest Ive waited to see a doctor is 5-10.
 
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