Tardiness Is NOT Next To Godliness!

Folks, if your appointment is at 10:00am, DO NOT SHOW UP AT 10:00AM!!!


There is a reason why we in the health care industry make those "day before your appointment" phone calls. It's called a REMINDER!!!! And during that reminder, we ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ask you to arrive BEFORE your scheduled appointment time. Some places say 15 minutes, some say 30, but we ALL SAY IT!!!!!


Now, would you like to know WHY we ask you to be early?

Ok, consider this scenario -

Ms. Tech arrives at work at 7:45am to turn on all of her equipment and do her daily quality control checks. She looks at her schedule, and it's CRAM PACKED. The boss is a firm believer in "productivity" so there is a patient scheduled in every single 15 minute block of time all day long. Not counting her lunch hour, that's 28 patients she's going to see today!!!

Her first patient is at 8am. The doors have been open since 7:30 (so folks can arrive BEFORE THEIR SCHEDULED APPOINTMENT TIME - see how that works?) But it's now 8:05 and her first patient has not arrived. Her 8:15 patient however, arrived at 7:50. And her 8:30 patient is checking in now.

Then, strolling leisurely through the door with a Chick-Fil-A biscuit in one hand and balancing a cup of coffee with her very large purse comes the 8:00am patient. She signs in, but cannot find her insurance card in the deep dark depths of the cave she calls her purse. It is now 8:10. It takes her another 10 minutes to fill out her paperwork. "How should I know when I had my hysterectomy?" (Please refer to the previous blog...) It is now 8:20. She is "officially" 20 minutes late for her appointment.

The dilemma for Ms. Tech is this:
Does she just skip the 8:00 patient and call back the 8:15 patient on time? Or does she wait for the 8:00 patient to finally be ready to be seen? The 8:15 patient will be angry if she is kept waiting past HER appointment time, and then the 8:30 patient will be late, and the 8:45, and the 9:00, and the 9:15 (you folks seeing a pattern here?) And this is only the FIRST patient of the morning. So far, it's looking like 27 patients are going to have to wait 20 minutes for THEIR appointment time because Biscuit Lady wouldn't wait for Chick-Fil-A. What happens if anybody ELSE is late?!?

Then again, if she skips the 8:00 LATE patient, and heads on to the 8:15, and 8:30, and 8:45, and 9:00 then when does she find the time to magically work the 8:00 patient back into the schedule? Every single block is filled, because heavens forbid the boss sees an empty time slot! Wait, the 9:00 just called to cancel. (Thank goodness SOME people have courtesy, huh? Even if it WAS at the last minute...) Ok, now she has time. But guess what? The 8:00 patient is swinging her biscuit around in the middle of the waiting room, spraying everyone else with (what we hope is) strawberry jelly while yelling at the office manager (Ms. Tech's boss) about how she's been kept waiting for "ALMOST AN HOUR! This is HORRIBLE service!" Now, the office manager is angry at Ms. Tech and writes her up for poor customer service.

So, what do you think that Ms. Tech is going to do? Do you think she's going to do what she SHOULD do, which is continue on with her morning in order to accommodate those patients who had the courtesy to show up for their appointments on time and prepared, so as not to inconvenience them? Awww, you're just precious! You really think that Ms. Tech can AFFORD to be written up or put her job in danger? Come on, she's got kids at home that she has to feed. A mortgage payment to make. A car that she'd rather not have re-possessed.

So, I'm gonna need you to just settle down in your chair in that waiting room and hush. Because Ms. Tech is going to be forced to cover her own ass.

"Mrs. Biscuit-Slurping Latecomer? Please come back now."