of appointments and CMI

Why are appointments scheduled close to one another, when you know "cannot make it" one. This was the question I was asking while waiting for my appointment at the hospital today.



My appointment was scheduled at 11:20am. I was advised to arrive 1/2 hour earlier because I had to take an X-Ray before seeing the specialist.



Because I wasn't working, I decided to go early to test what sort of system the hospital is using for early birds.



I arrived at 9:47am. The receptionist gave me my queue number. "1120", it says on the chit. How coincidental, it's the time of my appointment.

At the bottom of the chit it says

"PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT WE SEE PATIENTS

BY APPOINTMENTS ONLY

HAVE A NICE DAY

QUEUE NUMBER MAY NOT BE IN SEQUENCE"

The entire X-Ray procedure including waiting time took about 45 minutes.



After taking the X-Ray, I waited for my turn to see the specialist.



It didn't take me long to confirm that the queue number is the time of my appointment.



Feeling bored, I observed...

Queue No 0948 was served at 10:30pm (42 minutes). 1040 was served at 12:00pm (1 hour 20 minutes). 1041 at 12:20pm (1 hour 29 minutes). 1110 at 12:45pm (1 hour 35 minutes).



When it was my turn, I entered the room at 12:50pm...1 hour 30 minutes later than scehduled.



Officially, I left the hospital at 1pm. That's 3.35 hours spent at the hospital...on my own free will.



Lessons learnt:

1. There is no mechanism to entertain patients that come early.

2. "PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT WE SEE PATIENTS BY APPOINTMENTS ONLY" is true.

3. "QUEUE NUMBER MAY NOT BE IN SEQUENCE" is BS. All are in sequence.