Hey MD: The fact that appointments we pay a bunch of money for are only 15 minutes is pretty fucked up in a lot of cases.

It is messed up, I agree. You can’t address much in 15 min. What you don’t necessarily see is the BS administrative burden that also comes with visits that may or may not be factored in to the face-to-face encounter duration.

Oh, and the fact that you all can cancel on us at the last minute with no problem, but if we cancel we get charged is absolute bullshit.

Not every practice does charge for cancellation. But if someone reviews your chart before the visit and you cancel the same day or night before, you might actually end up wasting provider time. Just an FYI.

yup. a good PCP is hard to find, and even harder to keep in America.

Not universal, but absolutely common, unfortunately. The standard is 30 minutes for returns and 60 for news, but in private practice they tend to cut it much shorter.

I know this is a popular notion, but have you guys thought about:

1. If the doctor sees someone who is 30 minutes late, their entire schedule slips. So y’all complain if they don’t see you if you are 15 minutes late (usually that’s the policy), but also complain if you have to wait.
2. Have you guys thought about that primary care appts are in 15-20min increments (30min tends to be generous), which means, they either don’t address your issues if they are complicated. Or they’ll tend to run late?

Many people have no transportation, and it’s even harder to make it on time if one’s sick, so it’s just the right thing to try to squeeze in those who are late, but y’all can’t have it both ways.

source: am MD. And yeah I rather run late but see everybody and address everything I can, than finish on time and help nobody/few.