Luv, Zen Lill

I once sent a doctor a bill for $50 after I was forced to wait for more than an hour to see him. He called and apologized and said his office would contact me if he were ever running that late again when I had an appointment.

I waived my bill, and I never again waited for more than 10 minutes when I was scheduled to see him. If you’re not comfortable billing your doctor for your time, consider these tried-and-true techniques for cutting down your wait times…

Can you do it by phone or e-mail? In the US, the average wait time for a doctor’s appointment is 23 minutes. So it’s smart to handle whatever issues you can over the phone or via e-mail. Some insurers now pay doctors for these communications.

Phone or e-mail contacts are especially useful for discussing test results, changing a medication or following up on an earlier treatment. At your next appointment: Ask your doctor when phone and/or e-mail exchanges are useful and if there are certain hours when you can call in with questions or concerns.

Request the right day.
When you do need an appointment, you’re likely to experience the longest delays on Mondays and Fridays, because lots of people like to get things taken care of early in the week or just before the weekend.

For this reason, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are usually better options. To confirm whether this is the pattern at your doctor’s office, always ask which days are the slowest and try to book one of them. Also try to avoid school holidays.

Be smart about time of day.
You probably already know to ask for the first appointment of the day, but that appointment time typically gets booked quickly. In that case, ask for the first appointment right after the office lunch break (most practices do not book during lunchtime so that the staff can eat and doctors can catch up on any backups from the morning).

If that time is taken, ask for the last appointment of the day. Why is this a good time? Doctors’ offices close at a certain time of day, and appointments are typically back on schedule by then so that everyone can go home on time.

Also helpful:
Call an hour ahead of your appointment time to find out if the doctor is running late. That way, you can adjust your arrival time or reschedule if a long delay is anticipated.

Do your paperwork in advance. When booking an appointment, ask that all the forms you need to fill out be mailed or e-mailed to you in advance. Fill them out and bring them with you to the office about 20 minutes prior to your appointment time.

You may think that you’re not really saving time if you have to arrive early. But that’s not true. That fact is, you will be delayed if you have to fill out forms at the office. People with completed paperwork usually move to the front of the line!

Watch the clock.
No matter what you do, there will be times when you’ll have to wait more than you would like at your doctor’s office. Don’t just sit there. If you are waiting 15 minutes after your scheduled time, go to the desk and ask how much longer it will be. Do it again every 10 minutes until you are seen. The squeaky wheel does get the grease!