On a scale of one to 10, how much does your doctor annoy you? Are you forced to wait more than 30-minutes past your scheduled appointment? That would be a 10, in my book. Or, have you ever felt that he or she isn’t really concentrating on your problem? That would be another 10.

The truth about those waits is that when doctors are paid by the number of patients they see, they may double-book patients for 10 to 15-minute appointments. That means you often end up in their office for an hour or more.

Here are some suggestions about how to handle doctors who make you wait.

1. Switch doctors. Make an appointment to interview a new doctor and just talk.

2. If your insurance company allows it, ask for a discount. Your time is valuable, too.

3. Post reviews on Internet sites. Doctors hate them!

4. Complain to the doctor and show him or her how angry you are.

5. Ask the doctor how he or she feels about waiting for a medical appointment, or any other appointment for that matter.

If the doctor is a specialist whose practice involves life-threatening emergencies, be prepared to wait without complaint. You would certainly want the doctor to address your own medical crisis with all the time, attention and care possible.

As for not having your doctor’s full attention, ask yourself if you are part of the problem? Have you prepared a concise list of symptoms for the ailment that brought you to the office in the first place? Have you prepared a list of questions? These are some of the things that make doctors gnash their teeth and give patients a 10 on the annoyance scale.

The bottom line here is that there is vast room for improvement on both sides in the dynamic relationship between doctors and patients. Do your part to make that relationship work.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 4:08 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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