August 11th
Thursday, July 9 2009
I just made an appointment with my PCP. The first available appointment he has is for August 11th – more than a month from now. I’m going to take it, of course.
But just so we’re clear: there is no waiting in the American health care system.
Really? I just checked, and there is a 2-week wait for non-urgent visits, but for anything that someone needs attention immediately, we will see them the same day. That is actually the longest wait time I’ve seen for me (Except for when I am on vacation).
Yep. August 11th. I think part of the problem is that the practice I go to is in the city, and gets a lot of pressure from urban residents. There have been one or two hospitals closed in the last few years in the city, and I think a significant chunk of those patients ended up at the same hospital as my PCP practice.
It has occurred to me that I could probably find shorter wait times the farther out into the ‘burbs I drove, but for somebody like me (who spends a fair amount of time with his physicians), the closer my provider is to my office, the easier it is for me to make sure I’m getting the care I need. Not to mention, it would be a massive chore to get my records transferred to a new physician.