@Akilah, being a doctor myself, I can say that when I’m late it’s because of other patients being late, patients complaining of too many other issues than what the appointment was for, and the most frequent reason is because of medical emergencies that need emergent attention before routine issues.

When my patient is more than 15 mins late for a 30 min appointment, I have them reschedule or have them wait until after all the other patients who are on time have been seen. Yes these patients get pissed off, few fire me, most are never late again to their appt. When patients have too many complaints, I tell them I only have so many minutes to spend with them and they have to pick the top 1-2 complaints to discuss at that appointment. Regarding emergencies, it can’t be helped. I have my secretary inform patients approximately how late I’ll be and give them the option to wait or reschedule. You have every right to ask your doctor why he/she was late. You also have the right to charge your doctor for your time lost in the waiting room as long as you inform your doctor before creating a doctor-patient relationship.

In regards to being “one of the highest paid professions”, if you take away the office rent/mortgage, utilities (phone, internet, electricity, water/sewage, biohazard pick-up, etc), employee salaries & benefits (health, TDI insurances, training courses, retirement plans, paid holidays), office insurances (general liability, malpractice, disability), office supplies and machinery, medical supplies, licenses, repayment of educational loans (sometimes in the hundreds of thousands), take home pay is very little for private practice docs. What you see as payment to the doctor from your health insurance company, it has to cover all that stuff. Afterall, running an office is a business and the biggest cuts of the pie go towards taking care of the employees’ salaries/benefits and other insurances.

Your criticism about the OB/Gyn doctor in this article fails. She was dedicated. She kept taking care of the patient despite the patient’s lack of respect for the doctor’s time, always showing up late or not showing up at all. Anyone in any profession would get frustrated by a client like that. The patient’s tardiness is what makes the doctor late for another patient. Her no-show takes away a timeslot that could have been given to see another patient. The doctor could have fired the patient for noncompliance and let another doctor deal with it, but she stayed. She cared about making sure the baby be delivered alive and well.