Considerate

Please don’t keep me waiting. I’m not saying my time is more important than yours, or that I’m some kind of VIP or something. I planned and organized my whole day around this appointment, Child care has been arranged, my own work appointments have been rearranged to fit. I’ve left plenty of time before and after the allotted slot to allow for delays in your schedule, as well as getting to where I need to be. I’m just saying that it costs me to wait for you.


When I arrive and fill out all of the many pages of paperwork (which, by the way, I could have done in advance if you had them online), perhaps someone can let me know you are running late. I’d know then that I’d have enough time to run home and give my boy, who did not want to let me go this morning, a quick hug while I retrieve the one paper I forgot that I will need this afternoon. I’d know then that I could be sitting in your waiting room for an hour, and then possibly in the exam room for another. I could make a choice as opposed to feeling like an inconvenience sitting in the crowded waiting room.

It costs me to wait. In dollars, in daycare, in time, and in relationships. Don’t think I don’t know how a day can get crazy. I work in health care - I travel to patient appointments, and I am usually on time. I schedule carefully and realistically. I want to feel unhurried with each client. I want them to feel like I am hearing them.

So, yes, I know you are busy, and the office fax guy is here, and the drug rep stopped by. I also know that insurance creates a situation where you feel you must over schedule in order to make any money. I get all that. All I ask is that when you look out on the crowded waiting room, you think about all of those peoples lives, and consider what it took to get them there today.  Consider what they are missing to be there for you.  Consider your reasons for entering the profession in the first place, which were hopefully in the interest of helping others, and return to serving those reasons.