More On Waiting

I spend a disgusting amount of time waiting for doctors. Waiting for them in the reception area, waiting for them in the exam room, waiting for a phone call, waiting for a prescription to be called in …waiting for answers.

Why is poor service so acceptable in the medical profession? As though the experience of illness is not unpleasant enough, ridiculously long wait times, inaccessible providers, and costly mistakes are frighteningly common.

And the waiting takes place in such awful locations: usually hot, small rooms with overly bright fluorescent lightening. The worst is when you do your time in a crowded reception area - aptly named a Waiting Room - only to be taken into the exam room (with short-lived enthusiasm) and then are made to wait longer there. 

In the restaurant world there is a rule that customers should not be seated at a table until the server and the kitchen can provide them with timely service. People tolerate waiting to be seated but as soon as their backsides hit the booth, they want a menu, a drink, and their food to be ordered and arrive in an appropriate progression. Restaurateurs know, even if a table is available, don’t seat it until the customer can be given prompt service. 

I guess no such rules are needed in the medical field. They'll trick you with waiting in one room and then move you to another, only to wait longer, in private and with a false impression things are moving forward.

Oh, do I sound bitter?  

Sorry, this is my life now. The dullness of those neutral walls… the sterile smell… the smallness of the rooms… the stolen hours from my day… 

Fifteen minutes is an understandable wait time; thirty is very inconvenient; forty-five makes me insane; sixty or more makes me cry. 

Just waiting. To feel like my life is my own again.