Etiquette as a Patient/Receiver- Series 1 (aka How to get into the Good Books of a Healer): When you are Late

I think I have dealt with this topic before in my Instagram early last year. But maybe let me write a longer version here =)

So what happens when you are late for an appointment with your TCM doctor or any doctors or practitioners in the healthcare? Let me ride you through from the doctor’s point of view.

when-you-are-late

Usually healthcare professionals are very busy people and we try to slot in patients one after another. So when you are late, let’s just say your treatment duration is 1 hr, and you are late for 15 min, basically what you are left with is 45 min worth of contact time with your doctor. Not too bad though but you just devalue your treatment yourself. However for treatments that are 30 min, and if you are late say 15 min again, basically by the time you walk into the clinic, talk to the doctor, change out for the treatment, by the time you are on bed, you will need to get off the bed again because you need to prepare to step off from the treatment for the next appointment. And you cannot expect the practitioner to extend your treatment into the next slot’s timing because that will cause a cascade of delayed appointments. So unless you want to devalue what you are paying for, and be the main culprit for the domino lateness effect for the day, BE PUNCTUAL.

And when you are late with the shorten treatment time, usually practitioners will cut short a lot of treatment modalities and we will be in a VERY RUSHED MODE. So quality wise, I guess you should be intelligent enough to foresee for yourself.

So please, for your own benefit, BE ON TIME for your appointment and I am very sure it will be a smooth and happy healing process for you =)

Etiquette as a PatientXiang Jun LimDr (TCM) Xiang Juntcm, acupuncture, late, punctual, punctuality