Appointments being made months out

that's unhelpful. My PCP schedules your next appointment before you leave - and so does the GI dr and the podiatrist. The mammogram place doesn't but I've never had an issue getting an appointment in a timely fashion. I called last week and could have gotten in before the end of the month.

(((Hugs)))

I actually like being able to plan my appts months out, as long as I am just going for routine stuff. I schedule my mammogram + physical every year for the same week in August- the week of my Dad's birthday. I see my hematologist the same week. Makes it much easier to remember the appts from year to year.

I schedule my annual wellness (non-gyno) exam one year out. If I try to change the date, it'll probably be about a 6 month wait. So I try really hard not to have to reschedule my wellness exam. It took me about 5 months to get a Gyno exam. But it is fairly easy to get a mammogram scheduled. The dentist, I schedule when I leave the office, but if I have to change the appointment later on, it can be about 1-2 months later before I can get in again.

If I really need to see a doctor before my appointment (flu, pain, etc.) my health care provider has an urgent care center at my primary doctor's office. Odds are I won't see my primary doctor, but I'll at least get to see a doctor if I need to right away.

Yup. But supposedly this only happens in countries with socialized medicine. Happening right here in the US with its profit-based medicine, too. An issue we’ve noticed here is that lots of practices are going concierge, which means you don’t have to wait for an appointment - IF you can afford the big annual membership fee.

I feel lucky to have found a PCP I like who is not fresh out of med school and who works in a regular non-concierge practice. But scheduling can be quite a ways out.

I had an irregular mammogram and it was going to be 2.5 months to get a follow-up mammo and ultrasound. I went outside the system and got it sooner and it was cancer. Then another month to get into a breast surgeon and another month to schedule surgery.

I waited 6 months to get into a new PCP and 3 weeks before, my provider left the practice and the clock started again.
I lived in a country with socialized medicine. I called the US in May to schedule my mammogram for when I was home for the summer. They were scheduling into September so I called the hospital down the street from my apartment. They said they couldn't get me in that day, but could I come tomorrow? I had a mammogram, they read it, walked me across the hall, and checked out a suspicious spot via ultrasound, all in one day for approx. $100. I found socialized medicine very efficient and people don't go bankrupt if they get sick.

Our country has added millions of people to the system without any provision for adding more doctors. Doctors are getting burned out from the workload. Training is rigorous and hideously expensive, and there aren't enough seats. At the end of all that, the salaries aren't as high as they used to be. We're paying a shocking amount of money for DD's medical school, but she's lucky to have a seat. She'll be almost 30 by the time she's finished. Other countries start training doctors right out of high school. Something needs to be done, but it's not even on the table.

I find that I usually have to wait about a month for non urgent stuff

Dentist and endocrinologist, you schedule before you leave. Those would be further out.

I expected a wait to see a new derm but they got me in the next week, earlier this summer, with a PA. Gyn same, with NP. Oncologist can generally fit me in next week or two though those appts are now only once a year. Primary Care is easy to schedule as well.

Every specialist we've needed since we've ever needed specialists have been within the month if not the week, except we did have to wait about a month 15 years ago to see a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Iowa.

I'm sorry for those living in areas that seem to be very short on specialists. That would be frustrating. I guess I have been fortunate to always be near plenty of providers.

I wanted to reschedule my physical in September and they offered me February. I went in September as scheduled. Every time I've needed to see my GP for a problem, I see him (if he is there) or another doctor in the practice the same day. Specialists here vary a lot. You will wait months for a neurologist but most things you can see someone in a few weeks as a new patient and fairly quickly if you are a returning patient.

I opted to switch to a concierge doctor because the practice I was in couldn’t even see you on an emergency basis - I called a few years ago because I thought I had the flu (103 temp etc…) and they said “sorry we can’t fit you in - go to urgent care.” (I did and I had the flu.)

My new doctor will always see me the day I call and will even stay late to see me after work.

I tore my right medial meniscus about a month ago and I was pleasantly surprised that I only had to wait a week to see the orthopedist I wanted; only had to wait a week to get the MRI (AND they could do it at 8:30 at night so I didn’t have to take time off from work); and the PT I’m seeing could fit me in at 7:30 in the morning before work!

Like others here, I make all of my regular appointments before I leave the office: gyn (have to book those at least 6 months in advance); derm; eye (also 6-8 months in advance) - you really have to be on it; forget about canceling and rescheduling!

Yes to all of this and I HATE it. DD has a Rx for allergy meds that needed a refill and the primary doctor she saw last (who I personally didn’t like because she had the personality of a toad) refilled it but wanted her to come in for an exam before giving her another refill. This isn’t the doctor who initially prescribed it, that was an allergy doc that she last saw when she was nine. The nurse wanted me to schedule it right then (the soonest appointment was four months out, which would be past the time she would need the meds refilled) and I told her thanks but no thanks, I want to take DD back to the allergist to see if she even still needs to be on that stuff. After this many years (5) it’s very possible she doesn’t need it anymore. Oh, well we don’t schedule for that provider here. Of course you don’t, and of course I can’t do it online either. 🙄

And don’t even get me started on finding a new doctor for myself. The lady I had been seeing last left the practice a year ago. It’s impossible to get a timely appointment with one of the three female doctors at that clinic, so I looked at the other FOUR closest to me to find someone else. Yeah, no. Of the handful of female doctors at all of those clinics, I could get an appointment with ONE of them about four or five months out. Most aren’t even taking new patients and many are only PAs.

I live in one of those dreaded socialist medicine countries. My GP I can usually see within a day or two, but they also hold appointments each day for emergencies. Gyn - usually within 2 weeks. I’ve had them apologise when I had to wait a month, because the doctor was on vacation. Other specialists, including my mammogram clinic - generally within 3 months.

I've had a revolving door since my original primary left. They assigned me to one, then another as they both left. Then the next one left before I even saw her. I gave the wrong name of my PCP because she had been replaced by yet another dr. When the secretary asked, I just said, "I don't even both to learn their names anymore."
Quite right. It ends up being worse because we treat symptoms here, not causes. Where's the incentive to make us well if it means we won't be repeat customers? Where I lived, they looked for solutions and were willing to work with other forms of medicine that we call voodoo here.

Profit over patients. It’s better for the bottom line. Even the doctors don’t like it.

The issues we’ve had with specialists and long wait times have been in for GI docs (6 months) and mental health practitioners (finding one DD is comfortable with who takes our insurance and is accepting new patients with a history of suicide attempt is near impossible). I have friends who have similar complaints about orthopedic surgeons. IDK.