Marathon Girl and I went to the doctor yesterday for a routine prenatal exam. Once we arrived the receptionist informed us that the doctor had been calling into an emergency surgery that morning and was running 90 minutes behind.
We groaned. The waiting room was crowded. We didn't want to sit around for 90 minutes but considering how hard it is for Marathon Girl to find a babysitter for the kids -- especially now that school has started -- we decided to wait. Waiting wasn't the bad part because when you have Marathon Girl to talk with time flies by. What was somewhat upsetting was that we both had errands we wanted to run afterwards and was looking forward to being able to do them while we had a babysitter to watch the kids.
But I'm glad we had to wait. We've both been to lots of doctors offices and appointments but this was the first doctor we've been to who's office staff actually seems concerned that they're running behind. (We just switched OBs with this new baby.) His staff skipped their lunches or ate quickly while at their desks in order to speed things up. By the time we made it back to see the doctor, we only experienced a 60 minute wait.
The exam went well. Both Marathon Girl and the baby are doing very good. And was we were scheduling our next appointment, one of his staff gave us a pair of movie passes because of the wait and apologized again for the delay in seeing us.
I couldn't believe it. Do other doctors know about this? They could learn something from this office. Even though there was a delay, Marathon Girl and I would consider going back to this doctor again because it seems like he and his staff actually care about their patients and the time they takes out of our day to see him. (And the doctor is first rate and really knows what he's doing.) It's nice to see some customer service in the health care profession. If all goes well during labor and delivery, Marathon Girl and I will be sticking with this doctor.