How do you deal with waits at the doctor's office?

Having worked for a doctor for many years before I became a caregiver, I am all too familiar with overloaded appointment schedules and extreme waits for patients.  It is truly sad that doctors overbook so as not to have any empty space in their schedules and line their wallets a bit more.  Perhaps if they were the one to have to wait for such a long time, they might change their ways, one never knows.  I have taken my clients to the doctor's office many times and generally it is a long wait, then once  they are in with the doctor they are out in a short time.  Short of keeping a conversation going, keep it away from the "long wait"), or maybe promising them an out to lunch afterwards, the one thing I found was trying to schedule the appointment earlier in the am or first thing in the afternoon before it gets too backed up.

Thanks for the response, star!  I appreciate it.

I always wonder if it's worse at specialists.  At most family physician's offices, we get in in a reasonable amount fo time.  It's the surgeon's, ENT's and neurologist's offices that keep us captive for hours!

Yes, I do agree.  I worked for a specialist.  It is usually there that you have the longest wait, short of switching doctors there isn't much recourse.

There's part of me that says "let's just switch!"  At my parents' ENT, we wait for hours.  At my daughter's it's a reasonable 20 minutes or so.  But my parents won't switch.  They're so attached! 

I'm definitely going to encourage them to shoot for that first appointment of the morning next time!