The front desk. I was late 7 minutes and was told I had to reschedule. On another visit I arrived early and was made to wait an hour. This business has a late policy, conveyed by receptionist, means if you are late you will not be seen, and they do care if you had a medical emergency, drove an hour to get there. or got caught in a storm or was beaten up by a raging maniac, had to attend to sick family member all night. etc.. If you are late, you will not be seen even if you are the first to arrive and waiting room is empty. The receptionist will take delight in telling you this, so excuses do not matter. The smiling receptionist in your face as this is relayed will be something you don't forget. Not all medical practices do this. This is a dermatology clinic, not really equipped for emergencies, so they can apply these rules. We had patients in our office who were late and still saw them because we cared more about our patients than promoting any rule about tardiness. Health is one of those things tardiness just does not always apply except in this dermatology clinic, but the rules will only apply to you, not to them. If you must wait then you will wait, and they will take their time. Sad, but true. Know that you can just find another practice. Life happens. We cannot expect all medical offices to understand this. It can work the other way too. Once of many times, my father was speeding to the ER and was pulled by policeman for speeding despite his medical tags. He was given a ticket and refused to allow him to attend to his patient whose life was in danger. Later the police chief arrived at the ER, found my father and requested he give the ticket back. This is example of rules can be bent. In my husband's practice we got calls in middle of night and saw patients after hours. If they were late, we just worked them in. If there was a big surgery there was always the predictable bumping back at hospital so we made things work to ensure our patients were seen. We had patients who came up from Florida and down from Virginia. We sure were not going to make a big deal of a tardy of 7 minutes or even 20 minutes. That would require an ego about the size of what? Think hard. It will come to you. I have been here many times, as well as my family members. It has a corporate medical feel to the practice. The doctors are very good. The tardy rules are a bit hypocritical, though, too rigid
What can be said is they make their rules, and they can be rigid if they want. Even when you follow them they will not apply theses same rules to themselves. read more
