Doctors and Lawyers have a lot in common. For example, to become a doctor or lawyer, you must endure tedious and sadistically grueling schooling as well as pass equally sadistic exams. Doctors and lawyers are both professionals who can be commit malpractice if they let their skills falter. And, let's face it, you don't consult doctors or lawyers when you're having your best day ever.
There's one thing doctors and lawyers really don't share. Time Management.
Allow me to elaborate. Yesterday morning I popped down to my doctor's office before work to get some paperwork done. I wisely chose the 8am appointment, thinking I would be out by 8:30, and into the city happily working away at my desk by 9.
I was wrong. I was so so wrong. I arrived on time for my appointment and was taken back right away. But my doctor? She didn't bother to put down her doughnut and latte and come sign my form until 8:45. 8:45!!!! Then she wanted to chitchat to makeup for her tardiness, not getting me out of her office and back in my car until 9:05.
I spent that time waiting in her exam room just pacing, stomach burning thinking about all I could be doing with this wasted time. You see, lawyers ( or at least, those who bill clients) have to account for their time to properly bill clients (and accordingly, to make money). And we usually do this in increments of 6 minutes. 12 minutes? That's .2 of my precious day.
Doctors aren't under a similar obligation to account for their time to make money. Heck, my doctor gets her money before she's even seen me! So maybe this is why we all end up spending hours in waiting rooms reading last year's Good Housekeeping. Sure, we don't want them rushing through someone's exam but I'm pretty sure the exams later in the day got time crunched because mine ran so late, for no apparent reason.
Should doctors bill like lawyers? God no, who only knows what would happen then. But should they effectively manage their day and schedule appointments so as not to waste my time? Ooooh I think we're onto something.
When it's all said and done, I love my doctor. She's totes adorbs and maybe it's the daily 5 hour energy coursing through my veins that makes me so impatient.
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