I had an appointment at the doctor’s today for my little girl. The appointment was set for 3:15pm. I arrived at 3:14pm. After a minute or two at the check-in desk, I was told to go in the waiting room.

After waiting for 15 minutes, I went to the desk to get an idea of how long I would have to wait… if you know me, I am not a patient person, but I am far more accommodating if I am armed with information.

First, I was told that I was waiting in the wrong waiting area.

I didn’t know there was more than one. I just went where I thought the receptionist told me to wait.

I was then informed that this particular doctor is routinely 15 - 30 minutes behind schedule.

That doesn’t make sense. Why schedule an appointment for a time when you know you will never make it?

To this person’s credit, she went to check specifically for me. She told me they would be another 30-45 minutes.

30 minutes later (45 minutes after my appointment) I finally went to the secondary waiting room (that is the room you wait in that the doctors comes to see you in… some call it the exam room, but I usually am waiting there longer than I am being examined). After 10 minutes, the nurse came in to do a little investigative work. About 10 minutes later, the doctor finally showed up.

In 10 minutes time, my girl was examined and a prescription was written and we were on our way.

The total bill - $82.

If you are doing the math, $82 for 10 minutes works out to $492 per hour.

If you take into consideration the time that I spent… the opportunity costs, the gas it took me to get there and the fact that I sat and did nothing for better than an hour, that works out to be a doctor’s visit that cost me a small fortune.

How long do you think that you would be in business if you made your customers wait for you for over an hour then billed them an extremely high fee…?