Mass Eye and Ear, can you see or hear me waiting over here?

Today, I had a 2pm follow-up appointment with a retina specialist at Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston from a softball accident I had 7 weeks ago. I left work at noon, went home and took the train in from Forest Hills. I figured I'd probably be seen a little late and be out of the hospital between 3:30 and 4pm. Boy was I wrong.

I arrived at about 1:45pm and took the elevator to the 12th floor. I walked down to my doctor's office and found a completely full waiting room even though the doctor only sees patients starting at 12:30pm. The secretary rolled her eyes and kind of laughed as I checked in and warned me that, "we are really busy today." At the same time, another woman who apparently had an appointment that afternoon decided to reschedule. I should have followed her lead.

I found an empty seat in the waiting room and counted 30 other people waiting to see the same doctor. Granted, that most patients had 1-2 people with them so there were more like 12-15 patients in front of me. Well, surely they can't all be scheduled to see the doctor between 12:30 and 2pm, can they? 90 minutes / 15 patients = 6 minutes per patient...is that realistic? So, I waited, and waited, and waited.

At 3:15pm, a nurse took me across the hall to have a prelimary eye exam. My vision was still about the same as a month ago after the exam and then she dilated my already dilated pupil. At that point, I was sent back to the waiting room. Between 3:15 and 4pm, I witnessed a couple of people ask the secretary when they might be seen. I could feel the impatience of everyone around me. Around 4:00pm the cafeteria staff gave everyone waiting some complimentary water which only cooled tempers for a few minutes. By 4:30pm, I had had enough and went up to complain with 2 other people. One woman had a 1:15pm appointment and was still waiting too. Not good. If my eye wasn't already dilated for the exam, I would have left and found another doctor.

At 4:50pm, a different doctor brought me to a room, did another exam and then sent me back to the waiting room AGAIN (4:58pm by my watch). Come on. Something is seriously wrong here. At 5:05pm, I got called in to see the retina specialist. Finally, right? NOPE. Sat in an office chair until 5:30pm and THEN saw the doctor for about 6 minutes (seems about right) and he told me to come back in 2-3 months. I made sure to grab an early appointment next time. Mass Eye and Ear, seriously, WTF. You cannot schedule 30 people at the same time for an appointment. It's not fair to your patients or your staff and frankly, I don't feel it's safe by having the doctor rush through each patient.

I left the hospital 4 hours after I got there (and 3 hours and 40 minutes after my scheduled appointment which took 6 minutes). I wasted an entire afternoon and am going back there again tomorrow morning to see another doctor. Let's hope this doesn't happen again.

Seriously, MEEI, are you that blind and deaf to your patients?

By the way, fix your 2 broken elevators and air conditioning too. Thanks. Can't wait to get your 'Customer Satisfaction Survey.'