To leave instead of waiting until my appointment

[Kate8889]

Context: US healthcare

I made an appointment the other day for cold symptoms with my doctor, they said I needed to show up 45 minutes early to get swabbed to test for flu/COVID etc.

I get there and they swab me, 40 minutes until my appointment. I go to leave and come back later (my house is very close by) and the nurse stops me and says I need to stay in that particular seat until the doctor is ready to see me. 40 minutes out of my day for no reason. I asked why I needed to wait exactly and she told me this was protocol but could give no reason.

I left and came back for my appointment and everything worked out fine. Was I out of line?

More than 2 hours away from work and we have to take a half day, I work 20 minutes away from the office so if the appointment had gone long I would have hit that mark. I have 12 days total a year of vacation and sick days.

How did we get from 40 mins early, clearly living clues enough to be worth going home, to taking half a day off? Unless you do a 2 hour day in which case why didn’t you book it outside of that?

20 minutes+ 45 minutes waiting+ long appointment+ time to get home/log on can easily go to 2 hours

Christ on a bike!

I have no words

None

Well then YANBU - you sure showed them who was boss! You tell em girl! How dare they ask you to wait when you've got important work to do.

Just curious, what do you do for a living?

I was able to work from home after I left the office but it is 20-25 minutes to get to the doctor, 45 minutes wait and then the appointment, which is sometimes late

Where’s the 20 mines at the start coming from? I thought you were a 4 minute driveway?
If you were close enough to drive home and work during the 40mins your appointment was delayed why on earth would the whole thing ever have come to over 2 hours?

Software developer

I was coming from the office which is 20 minutes away

I just absolutely love the way people focused on the wrong part of OPs post!🙄😂

Either way the reason they ask you to stay is obviously because the delay is not an exact science, if you left and were called up in 30mins but you weren’t there no doubt you would be moaning about that.

You don't think having a chronically painful and blocked nose for 4 weeks is enough to see a doctor?

I don’t understand the outrage 😄 maybe people are viewing this through an NHS lens - although even in the NHS you’d probably go to the docs for a 4 week sinus infection after trying to help yourself for a month. People are just obtuse on MN OP!

Exactly

Not at all. I'd be there asap

Well it’s no one else’s fault you work 20 mins away is it?
You can clearly work from home, you could have gone to the appointment from home and minimised the time away from your desk if it was such a concern.

There was no table anywhere and I don't really like being hunched over my laptop. The nurse also said I wasn't even to go to my car to get my laptop but stay in that chair.

How could you be there asap?

They would announce in the waiting room, you wouldn’t hear because you wouldn’t be there.
They aren’t going to phone you and twiddle their thumbs until you drive back.

This was an in office day and I left work at 3:30 pm which is easier to smooth over than not being there at all

They literally called me when the results were ready and said that I should be there in about 15 minutes at my appointment time for the doctor to see me

12 days holiday a d sick days a year 😯 thats so awful