The most challenging part of family practice from our end is thoroughly addressing all of your problems in one visit. While we do not believe in enforcing the “one problem per visit” because we believe your time is just as valuable as ours, a regular office visit is 10 minutes (as we are only reimbursed by MSP for 1 problem per visit) and we like to stay on schedule as much as possible. Average wait times can be 15 to 30 minutes and we try our best to avoid longer wait times.
It is most helpful to us if you can present all of your concerns at the beginning of the visit so that we can determine which one is the most important that needs to be addressed urgently. If there is time available we will try to address other issues, but we may need to ask you to return for a follow-up visit. Good medicine takes time.
What makes family medicine unique is that what comes through our doors is unpredictable. So please understand that if your wait time is longer than usual, this is because we needed to spend more time with a sick or complex individual that either needed an urgent fit-in or an extended visit.