Dr''s Office

I think that next time you should call before you go. Explain that you need an emergency appointment and they will tell you when to come in. If it was such an emergency that she was wheezing and having trouble breathing that she needed to be seen right away then you should have brought her to the ER. I don't think that the doctor has any obligation to bump the people who did call and make appointments, and I think it would be total chaos around the office if everyone who has an emergency just showed up. They probably do have last-minute slots available, but you need to call ahead to get them.

You always need to call first, even with emergency visits. This way they can tell you when the best time to come in is. Most offices are more than willing to fit you in, they just have to find the space. For you to think you should have been seen ASAP because you were there first is a little silly. They do have other patients, with appointments, who will always be seen first.

Next time you have an emergency, you need to go to the ER, otherwise call or expect to wait.

I don't think I've ever just shown up at the docs without calling first...even when my kids were *really* sick. Docs usually keep a couple of slots open for "emergency" sick visits and the best way to get them is call ahead. If it had been a true emergency, you should have gone to the ER. Since it apparently wasn't, do you really think it was fair to just drop in and expect to jump ahead of all those folks who'd already called earlier for sick visits or those that had standing appointments? I think you're lucky you got when you did...you could have been made to wait the whole day. And yeah, people DO make appts for "emergency" visits. I've called "first thing in the morning" tons of times because my kids were running a fever or coughing or whatever. That way I know that when I come in at 11 or 3 or whatever time they tell me, I won't be waiting 2 1/2 hrs.

you mention that your child has a history of asthma, but was she wheezing at that time or in any type of respiratory distress? or did she have a cold and cough and you were concerned of where it may lead b/c of the asthmatic history. i can't imagine that a dr office would allow a child to wheeze and struggle to breathe for several hours, if that is what happened, you should have gotten up and headed to an ER. if it was your normal cold/cough without resp issues at that point - you should have called at 9am for an appt. i can tell you, if i was sitting there and overheard you say "oh, she has a cold/cough and has had asthmatic symptoms before" and you got seen before my child with an appt, i would have been unhappy. NO ONE likes to wait in the dr - i'm sorry that you are so frustrated, but it's hard to tell if was truly an emergency(and they should have directed you to the ER if the wait was so long) or if you were just overly concerned of what it might turn into. either way, lesson learned, call ahead next time :)

If it was truly an emergecy you should have taken her to the hospital. Also, my doctor's office keeps appointments open each day for unexpected sickness, so we have to call as soon as the office opens and they give us a time to come in that same day...have you checked into that?

I agree you should have called first. Most ped offices have appointment lines open up before the office doors actually open up. They will squeeze you in at the most appropriate time of the day- the time where they are the least busy and based on your level of emergency. Yours was not really an emergency. It sounds like it was a busy day and there were probably actual emergencies that needed to be seen before a cold. If your child was having an asthma attack, that would different, but you should have gone to the ER in that case, not the clinic. I am surprised they haven't told you to call first when you have come in unannounced before. They want you to call to prevent a long unnecessary wait, sometimes they can advise you over the phone and you might not need to come in at all, and to prevent the spread of germs between all the kids who are sick and the ones who are there for well visits. They don't want sick kids sitting in the waiting room forever, so I doubt they left you sitting there if it wasnt necessary.

If you are upset you are perfectly within your rights to look for a new doctor. But you might not find one that will be different. Any other doctor will certainly expect you call before coming in so that they can tell you the best time. If you have been happy so far I'd stick with this doc.

An emergency would be a life-threatening condition like no breathing, trouble breathing, no pulse, severe bleeding, etc. If the child had one of those conditions then they should go to an emergency room. Anything else can be handled at the pediatrician's office.

Like other posters have said, peds keep slots open for "same-day sickness" appointments. You have to CALL and be scheduled for those. People who have the courtesy of making and keeping an appointment should not be bumped by people who just walk in expecting to be seen.

I don't think the wait was excessive. The office's first priority goes to people who have scheduled appointments. It sounds like they were booked solid that day and did what they could to accommodate you after their scheduled patients were seen.

I've never known a pediatrician to be okay with patients just showing up and we've been with 3 different offices because of moving and whatnot. I have always been told to call and if they cannot fit us in quickly and we feel it's an emergency, we are supposed to take the children to Urgent Care or the ER. BTW, two of my children have asthma too so I get the "urgency" feel on our parts but that's why there are Urgent Care clinics.

I'm glad it turned out just to be a cold.

What do I think you should do? Either be thankful they actually take you at all when you just show up or start using Urgent Care when you feel it's an emergency visit. Are you sure they are even okay with you just showing up (meaning they let all their patients do that) or are they just being nice and not saying anything and trying to accommodate the best they can?

Think about it from their perspective and that of the patients who HAVE appointments. If they have 5 people show up without calling or having appointments, what is that going to do to their schedule and the people who have appointments? I would leave a doctor's practice if he made it a habit of bumping me or making me wait for people who just walked in. I'm not trying to be unsympathetic. Like I said, two of my sons have asthma so I have been in your shoes but I took them to the clinic when we had emergencies.

I do have to agree with the other posters...your daughter's symptoms were not an emergency. I am guessing she is your first child because I know every time my first threw up or had a fever or a bad cough, I panicked. Now as a mom of 3 (soon to be 4), I know when to worry and when not to. Same thing with the asthma. If she doesn't want to eat and just wants to sleep, let her. It doesn't mean it's anything serious. Haven't you ever had a really nasty cold and just wanted to lay in bed? If she were having trouble breathing, coughing and unable to catch her breathe (even then I'd be doing a breathing treatment first and steaming up the bathroom to see if that helped), wheezing (whistling sound), or look at her stomach/ribs. If her stomach sinks in a lot when she is trying to breathe, that is cause for concern too but for ALL of those symptoms, again, Urgent Care is where I'd be going...not my pediatrician.

They sound like they were apologetic - I mean you did show up unannounced to an overbooked office. I'd apologize, say thanks for the help and take her to the emergency room next time you're really worried.

At our pediatrician's office there is always a hassle trying to schedule our next appointment because they're so busy. I usually have to talk with the receptionist for a few minutes to work out a good date and time to come in because there are so few openings.

They sound like a normal, busy office to me.

you need to call fist and ask them if they have appointments for today or tomorrow and that way you will not wait long long time ,if you like the dr. don't switch

You generally have to call ahead. Even for an emergency visit. Most Dr. office's save a few appointments back for this type of thing. I would have take my kid to an urgent care center (for a fever over 100 degrees AFTER taking ibuprofin) or to the "ready clinic" (the kind that is in CVS and some grocery stores).
It was actually cheaper for me to take my 3 year old to the ready clinic. He had an ear infection. It took all of 10 minutes for diagnosis after walking up to the desk. Then it took 5 minutes to fill the prescription.
I wouldn't look for a new family doctor, but I would find out what their exact policy is for unscheduled visits. They probably have some sort of nurse line that you can call.

Next time that you find yourself in a situation in which your child needs to be seen urgently, utilize the urgent care clinic. If that is too expensive of a co-pay, call the doctor's office in the morning and explain your situation and politely ask if your child can be seen that day. They will check their schedule and let you know their first availability to fit you in. It is likely to be 2-3 hours after you call them, as morning appts are usually the busiest times for docs, as people book morning appts so that they can get to work, or get their kids off to school. If you would have just called from home you could have been waiting for your same-day visit from the comfort of your own home, rather than an uncomfortable office with virtually nothing to keep a 2 year old occupied for more than a few min.

**Adding -- Do feel free to call the doctor's answering service if it is after hours. The on-call doctor can talk to you on the phone and help guide you, or to let you know what kind of a day they have the next day. When my hubby is on call, if he has a patient who wants to be seen the next day he instructs them to call his office in the morning to make an appt (and, since he's already aware of their situation he can let them know exactly when he can squeeze them in--or sometimes he'd come to the office a few min early to see them before actual clinic hours occur.)

Hi S.
Yes the wait was excessive. The reason for the excessive wait may not have been explained to your satisfaction. You always call an office for an appointment, you go to ER if calling is not possible, or call 911. You may not realize that there were other emergencies that morning. I have been the cause of some of those emergencies once when our newborn son was in trouble, and when I called, they said they would squeeze him in. When I got there, the secretary brought the RN to the door, who took one look at us trying to get our son out of his outerwear in the warm waiting room, and said "don't bother undressing him. She hollered to the MD, who said "I will meet you at the hospital-- go now" As we left I heard MD say "clear my office". Maybe some of them were emergencies but on our son's hospital record the words -- "will not survive the night" tell our story. He did and recovered & today he is a college coach.
Another time I had been given a med in the AM for illness. I took it, and by noon my husband helped me back into the office, and I was brought into the pt room where I went into anaphylactic shock. I too recovered but as I was leaving a patient who didn't like the rather long wait was at the window yelling at the receptionist, who said(not very polite perhaps but..) "listen lady we had a near death here at noon, and we are doing the best we can" I cried and said"that was me, right?" to the nurse who was walking me out. She agreed and I left knowing that I would probably be their biggest emergency that day and perhaps for days to come.
One day I was in a waiting room and saw a young man fall into a seizure, he was taken care of before some of the people in the waiting room knew what had happened.
Now when I have to wait, I remember that I too have caused waits on those 2 and several other less horrendous times. Try to realize that since your other emergency was not such a long wait perhaps you did have an emergency but perhaps there was a more life threatening emergency.
God bless you and keep you from being the life threatening emergency.

I am sorry, but I think it was wrong to show up unannounced and expect that they would drop someone else to see your child.

I call ahead, even for "Emergency" appointments and they will let me know at what time they will squeeze me in. That way I don't have to sit there for hours, waiting to be seen.
If you are otherwise happy with your doctor I would stay and call ahead the next time. If it is a TRUE EMERGENCY, go to the ER - but even there wait times of 5+ hours aren't too unusual.

I would think the wait depends on how full their schedule is. If their office doesn't keep some slots available for emergency visits, you are taking your chances. Do you not have Immedicate Care facilities in NY? If so, I would bring her there, they are like ERs, but without the wait and it's much cheaper.

I'm surprised he saw you at all!! I know if I was one of the patients that had an appointment and had to wait so he could squeeze you in, I would be very angry. A cold is NOT an emergency! It's a cold! If you were that worried you should have taken her to the hospital! That's where you go for emergencies, not the doctors office. BTW The hospital probably would have made you wait also depending on the condition of other patients there. Even they don't think a cold is an emergency. Even for a 2 year old who didn't eat her snack and took an extra nap! Sorry, you were in the wrong here, not the doctor!

By the sounds of things your situation wasn't a REAL emergency. That being said, your pediatricians office should have some regulations, ie. call ahead etc. so that they have a little more organization. We always have to call ahead, and if it sounds like a serious situation, they fit you in that day. If it sounds like is a true emergency, they say to go straight to the emergency room.

If you daughter is having an asthma attack or any trouble breathing you should bring her in and not made to wait. If you are afraid that she is going to have trouble but hasn't had any yet, you should make an appt. If her asthma is frequent or severe, the dr. should give you medication and teach you what to do in case of an attack. then if she has trouble and you can't controll it with the proper treatment you should take her to the E.R. Asthma is scary for parents and if you are nervous about it you should make an appt with her Dr. to discuss this so he can help you to understand what to look for and when to get help. Wishing you all the best,
S.

I don't think there's anything unusual about your doctors office you always must call your doctor before you go in so a situation like that doesn't happen. If it trully is an emergency your usually told not to go to the doctors office but to go to the emergency room. A doctors office is not equiped for an emergency. There are after hour pediatric centers where you can take your child if you feel there is an emergency and you don't want to subject him or her to an emergency room.
Take care

I'm sorry that you're feeling aggravated with the doctor's office. You said you've been seen much sooner in the past. I don't think showing up without an appointment or calling first is a good idea. You will be the last priority. If a child simply has a cold, is tired and not eating so well, this really is not an emergency. Your visit was unplanned, but it does not sound like your toddler was in need of emergency attention. Clearly the office was booked solid that day, and they may have had people CALLING once the office was open to ask for a same day, sick child appointment. I would suggest not just showing up for an unplanned (not the same thing as emergency) visit without the courtesy of a phone call.
Hope your little one is feeling better.

always call first, especially with emergency visits... I've waited that long if not longer on walk-ins... I hate waiting with a sick child too... I wouldn't change you doctor, next time just call ahead, if they tell you they are book see when they can fit you in, you still may have to wait, but shouldn't be as long.

My pediatrician has a call-ahead rule. You HAVE to call ahead, even if it is just to say, "We're coming in now!" If you do not call ahead, the office reserves the right to charge an additional $50 charge not covered by insurance, and keep you waiting until you can be seen. When I first saw that clause, I was really shocked, but the nurse explained that if they cannot even predict who will be coming in (not just those who don't have appointments but those who will walk-in off the street), no one will be seen on time ever. And I guess that makes sense. If you have a true emergency that is time-sensitive within the day, they recommend that you go to the emergency room. If not, call ahead and ask what part of the day they can squeeze you in. They might have told you not to bother coming until noon, because the doctor had no openings or was already double-booked.

You should call the doctor's office and ask if they have a call-ahead policy. I'll bet they recommend it, even if they don't require it, for this exact reason. Whether you switch doctors is completely up to you. If you have other complaints, this might be the straw that broke the camel's back - I can see that! But if this is a one-time irritant with otherwise decent service and attention, I would keep your doctor and call ahead next time.

I agree with the other posters. Your child was sick, and you should have called first thing in the morning to make an appointment, but it wasn't truly an emergency. If it was truly an emergency, you should go to the ER. If it were truly urgent, I'm sure they would have seen you sooner. However, it sounds like your child had a simple cold and you showed up without an appointment. It wouldn't be appropriate to bump people who actually had appointments for a non-urgent visit from someone who didn't. If the situation was reversed, you wouldn't want to be bumped! If you had gone to the ER, chances are you would have waited 5-6 hours ... REALLY long wait times are just what happens when people walk in off the street, as with the ER.

You may certainly change doctors if you wish, but I don't think what they did was inappropriate, particularly because it sounds like they were kind and apologetic, just unable to accommodate you in their schedule first thing in the a.m. I would ask about their call-ahead policy and about their policy for keeping appointments open for same-day illnesses. See what their system is and how you can work within it the next time.

No I don't think the wait was excessive. This was not an emergency. Yes, your child needed to be seen by a doctor, but there was no reason you couldn't have called when the office opened and asked for an appointment that day.

I would try and call the dr before you show up. lots of drs have emergency appts scheduled in right before lunch and at the end of the day. if you call first they can let you know when they can squeeze you in so you won't have to wait so long. hope your daughter is feeling better!

I've never showed up to my pediatricians office without calling first. If I had to get in that day, I called. I wouldn't just show up. If something was that much of an emergency I would have gone to the ER instead. I don't want to sound insensitive but it sounds like your daughters case was not a reason to just show up, you should have called first. With that being said, they sound like they were pretty reasonable considering. If the office is anything like mine, its ALWAYS crazy busy in there, not only with sick visits, but well visits too. I'm in NJ and right now I've been hearing there is a lot of sick kids, so I'd expect the office to be busier than usual too. I wouldn't change your doctors if you like them, the wait was out of their control and if you didn't want to wait you should have called and had them squeeze you in with an appointment. Dr's office have to priortize too based on age, symptoms and what not, not just appts and who's there first. They have to balance other "emergency" visits and decipher whats truly an emergency vs what is not. I don't think you have a strong argument here, sorry.

If you like the doctor, stay. You can ask if they have an answering service you could call before they open or start answering the phones in case you need an emergency appointment, but since you did not have an appointment, any wait, or being told they could not fit you in, is perfectly understandable. I have called first thing and been offered an early morning time at my pediatricians, or offered a later afternoon. They usually ask me the nature of the visit (if it is a really serious concern or just a sick visit). I also have a child with asthma and if the case sounds serious they will usually juggle us in. If it is an emergency you should go to the ER instead of the peditrician's. Otherwise, it is just urgent and you might expect to wait. You could also try calling the doctor's answering service during non-office hours to explain your daughter's symptoms and see what they think you should do in the time before you can make an appointment. Sometimes pediatrician's are pretty busy. Frustrating, yes, but not worth leaving the doctor's office if that is your only issue.

I don't think this was a true emergency. Your daughter had a cold. If it were me, I would have called when the office opened and asked to be seen sometime that day and let them squeeze me in. At least then, you have an appointment time (like all of the other children in the office that day) instead of showing up unnanounced and expecting to be seen right away. Dr. ofices simply don't work that way. I have 2 kids (oldest is 4 1/2) and I have never just shown up at the doctor without calling first. They almost always hold appointments open for "emergencies" or same day appointments, so I would call next time. It should reduce your wait time. Hope your little one feels better soon.

What do I think you should do? Chalk it up to experience.
You've had positive past experiences with them and then you had 1 bad day. If it is the only bad time you've had with them, then stay with them.
A lot of doctors I have say right in their phone messages "if this is an emergency call 911 or visit emergency room / clinic".
I'll call to talk to a nurse if I'm not sure how serious symptoms are, and if they have an opening in appointments, I'll take it.
The emergency care clinics will usually have a wait (I've NEVER been through one without it taking at least an hour) and it depends on how busy they are and how critical the injuries.
I think everyone has a bad time waiting in a dr office at one time or another.
One of my pet peeves is they take your blood pressure after making you wait 2 hrs past your appointment time and THEN ask if you have a high blood pressure problem - "I didn't 2 hours ago!". I switched drs after several repeated problems with them.

Why did you show up unannounced. Should have waiting until 9AM and
then called. If your child was that sick, you should have gone to the
emergency room.