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Waiting Rooms: What Could We Improve?
I am waiting on a Telehealth appointment today and it’s taking forever. Has anyone else found this to be their experience? You wait and wait for the confirmation email or phone call, and then wait on Zoom some more.
For me, it’s well worth the wait to not have to travel for a doctor’s appointment though, especially because today’s meeting is a surgical consult with my spine surgeon regarding my hurt upper back (so driving the last few days has been major ouch).
If you could improve one thing about the doctor’s appointment waiting-room process (in an ideal world), what would it be?
Would it be a more comfortable waiting area in general? A waiting area with snacks? A waiting area with a foam pit and a bouncy house? Sky is the limit!
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3 Replies
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I am not fond of waiting rooms. I don’t know if there is a lot that can be done about them, I am afraid they are just the wrong idea altogether.
Many people live their lives as if they are in a waiting room constantly. Waiting for life to improve. The problem is of course the waiting mind, which is bound to be especially activated in such a specific environment.
Our only defense would be: don’t assume or entertain a waiting inner state. Just enjoy yourself observing, even better go inside and take this opportunity to reflect and meditate. Just notice your breathing and ignore all thoughts and feelings that may arise. And fully Be There. This is the perfect time for undisturbed being.
So the answer would be: we can only improve on ourselves, mostly by not being in our minds but in the immediate reality that is already there, full on, without our effort of trying to filter it. It’s brutal, but at least it’s honest and ever fresh. And it’s gloriously always that what is.
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I mean, snacks are never a bad idea. Hah! I agree with Paul that waiting rooms are never idea, although they usually provide a great opportunity for people watching. My telehealth appointments haven’t been too bad; I’ve only waited a few minutes each time. But we had a telehealth visit with my daughters pediatrician earlier in the year and we waited close to 30 minutes.
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What is the ideal waiting room? What suits one person may be horrible for another. The chairs that suit one person may be painful for another. COVID has spread people out in waiting rooms which is beneficial for PWCF. Snacks – I would be wary – can bring your own. Books have largely gone from WR’s with COVID – again with a little planning can bring your own.
Our local CF at the Alfred Hospital now schedules appointments such that the time spent in the waiting room is minimal, go ASAP into a cleaned consulting room (CR) where Drs, Physios, and ancillary staff come in one after another all in PPE. May wait a while in the CR.
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