JIM “PAPPY” MOORE: THE Most Important Medical Criterion

Stay with me. This is worth the trip.

What is the most annoying part of going to see a doctor?

For me it is never knowing how long you’re going to wait in that waiting area with perhaps dozens of others all waiting to see your doctor.

You get an appointment. You arrive early. You check in. You wait, often with many others. You tried to get an early appointment and thought you got one. Your appointment is at 9 am. You arrive at 8:30 am just to be sure you are not late in case traffic was a problem. You know your visit will only be 20 minutes. You should be out of here by 9:30 am. But that comes and goes.

Occasionally some patient comes out and you know you’re one patient closer. You think “‘patient’ is an appropriate term because you have to be very patient to see the doctor.”

Ten o’clock comes. You go ask the person at the counter when you will see the doctor. “As soon as he can get to you.” You sit back down wondering how your 9 am appointment was over an hour ago, and you’re still waiting to see the doctor. Inside you quietly fume.

Eventually, you get in to see the doctor. You do not get to stay beyond your allotted twenty minutes, so it is highly likely none of those before you got to stay beyond their allotted twenty minutes. As you finally leave near lunch time you wonder “how is it I can get a 9 am appointment and not see my doctor for almost two hours after 9 am?” If you ask you are told “well, the doctor is very busy this morning.” You wonder “so that makes him run two hours late when he didn’t start until 8:30 am?”

Of course the answer to this problem is easy. The doctor’s office overbooks because the one thing they never want is a space in his seeing patients. They want to fill every minute and if customers have to wait an extra hour or two so that he never has an empty moment, well that’s just how it’s going to have to be.

Seventeen years ago I set out to find a group of doctors who knew how to tell time, and knew that patients only have so much patience in waiting to be seen. Doctors who understood the value of being on time for appointments they made. Sounds kind of crazy, doesn’t it? But what if you could find such a group?

I am not going to disclose the name of the group. I will tell you I had to find them a two hours drive away. It’s four hours round trip plus the time I spend with the doctor or doctors. “But Jim, you’re not really saving any time are you?” My answer is “I’m saving stress.”

I leave when I need to leave to get there early. I have a pleasant drive in East Texas to and from my doctors. I arrive early. I check in. I walk into my doctor’s office at exactly the time of my appointment. I cannot underscore how wonderful that is. I see the doctor. We visit. We cover what is going on. Afterward I might need to get blood work done, which is also done zippity-do-dah quickly. It is run like an organization which values YOUR time as much as its own.

I discovered them through effort in 2009. They are my go-to doctors. Top notch. Efficient. Reasonable. Pleasant. Respectful of their patients/customers.

And when I’m done I go get some lunch at some favorite spot in their fair city. I never get in a hurry. I leave home at a reasonable time and get back home in a reasonable time. I set my own appointments through an online portal which allows me to see the openings of my doctor, so I can pick the time and the day of my appointment with him or her.

Their portals make other portals look like an old coke machine by comparison. I can find my charts for the past umpteen years. I can see after visit reports from all my doctors. I can send messages to their staffs. What’s not to like?!

Such groups are out there but you have to go looking for them. Good luck, fellow patients.