Ranting on doctors - again - it's not hard

One thing they don't teach doctors in school is customer service. Or maybe they do - but it doesn't show.

For example, if you make an appointment to see a doctor and you're 5 minutes late, the office typically reserves the right to cancel your appointment and still charge for your visit. But if you show up on time and the doctor is 60 minutes late getting around to see you, there are no ramifications for the office or the doctor. Which reminds me of a nice little trick one office pulls. At one time parking at a particular office used to be free. But because of supposed abuse of the parking lot by non-patients, they made the lot pay-and-display. You have to put money in a machine for a set period of time (of your choosing) and display the ticket on your dash. But once you're in the office, especially as a walk-in, you have no idea how long it's going to take to process you through the waiting list or the face time with the doctor. And the office staff are usually of no help in that regard either. So if you realize your time is running out on the parking clock, you need to buy another ticket. But how much time do you buy? An hour? Two? You have no idea. God forbid you are out buying more time when your name is called. I've seen a patient inform the desk staff that they're just going out to buy more parking time, then the doctor's assistant calls the patient's name while they're outside. No answer - the file goes back in the bottom of the pile. Meanwhile, the desk staff are oblivious to what's transpiring even though you left a message with them. Poor patient waits another hour to see the doctor and they don't even know why.

Everyone has cell phones these days. It would be simple to take a patient's name and cell number when they sign in and offer them to go do other stuff in the vicinity if they please and the staff will call when there are only 2 people left in front of them on the list. They could make it clear that if the patient is called back into the office and they don't show up within.... let's say...... 15 minutes, they lose their spot in line. Would that be so hard to arrange?