A Long Wait.....

I was just thinking back to when I went to the hospital last time and I couldn't help but remember how frustrating it was to wait for what I felt was forever. It was just a follow up where i had to see my doctor again because of the results of a blood test.

First i had to go and register myself and then after that i waited in the waiting room for about twenty minutes. Finally the nurse called my name and I followed her to a room where she performed a small physical. The physical itself was about ten minutes because the nurse had to find the paper medical record and then record everything there by hand.

After the small physical I had to wait in the waiting room yet again where I waited about half and hour to be finally seen my my doctor. Talking to my doctor about my results took about fifteen minutes because she had to get the paper charts and show me what was written in the papers.

After that the doctor told the nurse to handle the prescription, which toot another ten minutes because the nurse couldn't find the paper and then she messed up so she needed to get another one. After that the nurse told me to go to another room to get my doctors note, and there was this huge line there for people waiting as well. after standing in line for about five minutes, the line didn't seem to be moving at all so i decided to just leave.

Overall, I did not enjoy my visit to the doctors that day. For the most part my visits are usually this bad and i really hate having to endure for what seems like an eternity of waiting. If the medical office only had Electronic Medical records (EMR), then I'm sure my experience wouldn't have been so bad.

My waiting times could have been reduced, my doctor could have shown Me all my info in seconds instead of minutes, she could have even printed out my prescription and doctors note there on the spot. More patients could have been seen, maybe two or three others in the time to only see me. In the end, EHR's only seem like an improvement to what i experience in every visit to the doctors office.