I found this topic interesting as I've noticed in the past 2-3 years a change in many doctor's offices where I live. Most of them now have signs advising the patient to tell the front desk if they have waited more than given number of minutes, usually 15-25. It's actually been a while since I've had to wait in a doctor's office, sometimes to the point that I have to laugh because I've just gotten started on some article I wanted to read and was called to the back.
My family care/primary care doc calls me his favorite patient, even in front of his nurses. But if I had to wait over an hour each time I went in, I'd change docs in a heart beat.
I just wish our extremely busy (2nd busiest in the state) emergency department could get it together; it's been horrific for literally years. I once took my 88 year old father in at 10pm for chest pains -CHEST PAINS, mind you! - and we sat in the waiting room for 45 minutes BEFORE he was even triaged. And that happened only because I made a little scene about it. Thank God he was having stomach/reflux issues not heart, but WE didn't know that and neither did they at first.
When I torn my achilles tendon from my heel last week, I went to our adorable little county hospital where they treat you like family -- love that place
-- and they were so dear to me and my mother at 2am. Exam, xrays, labs, warm blankets, in/out in 2 hours.
Jan in VA