Someone not showing up for their pre-op psych eval... Twice!

So here I set waiting for a client who is 20 minutes late for her appointment and who already missed (without calling) her first appointment.  I don't know why she missed the first one because I am not the one who talked to her to reschedule it, but it was marked as an "unexcused" no-show. With regular, established counseling clients, I will call someone if they are late (knowing that sometimes there are scheduling mixups or people forget or just lose track of time).  When she missed her first appointment, I tried to call her cell phone and got voicemail.  I am not calling this time.  If someone cannot make their pre-op appointments a priority, then that tells me that they will not make anything else about their surgery a priority.

This particular surgical group uses only this office for their psych evals (and only accepts evaluations from outside sources if someone has been seeing a particular counselor or psychiatrist for over a year), and I doubt that either of the two full-time psychologists are going to be inclined to schedule someone who was a no-show for TWO appointments.  I know that I won't reschedule her (especially since I got showered and dressed, and then drove almost 40 minutes to do just two evaluations today, and it was hardly worth my time and gas to come just for one!).  She now has 2 minutes before I walk out the door. I don't understand someone blowing this off TWICE.  I guess if she really wants the surgery, she will find another surgeon...

Lora

Yeesh!! 

Yeah, I hate no-shows......

Yep.  It seems like if you are committed to the surgery process, and the life-change after, you would at least keep your appointments before-hand.  It always drives me nuts when people show up super late or don't show up at all for appointments...sometimes I think people forget that the people they sign up to work with, have appointments with, etc., have actual lives too.

Isn' t this not only extremely rude but extremely stupid?    I just don't get people.   Unless you are dead in a ditch, there is NO excuse for not calling if you are going to miss an appointment - I just don't get where these people are dragged up?

My dentist always makes a great fuss of me, not only because I am very entertaining but because I always turn up for my appointments or reschedule days beforehand if I have a problem.   Long story short,  I even did a police report in his office once because of an incident that occurred just prior to my leaving for my appointment!   Ok, that's weird but you get my drift?

This surgery is not an entitlement - even if you are MO or SMO  - it is a privilege, and I really believe it should be treated as such~

I 100% agree with you.  If a patient is this non-compliant before surgery, one can only imagine how non-compliant they will be after.

No excuse for being late without the courtesy of a phone call at the very least...

I'd discharge them from care.

That is just totally rude.  Patients who no-show just don't seem to understand or care that the provider's time is valuable, and that they (the no-show patient) are using up an appointment slot that another patient would have been happy to have.  I can see forgetting ONE appointment, but I would be so mortified at having done that that I would for damn sure be there for the second appointment, assuming the provider was gracious enough to reschedule me.

Guess she really doesn't want this surgery.  Or maybe she has some mental health issues that she is just afraid to bring out into the open.  Either way, that doesn't excuse such rude behavior.

I showed up three hours early for my psych eval, lol. It was 40 miles away and you never know what the traffic is going to be like.

That's so rude! I find it hard to believe that this patient was serious about moving forward. I was super excited to cross this step off my list and looked forward to it.

I would guess the no shows are more telling of her being ready for the surgery than anything she could have told you to be honest. Maybe she has cold feet, or is anxious. It's still rude, and I wouldn't reschedule her if it were me.