As an outpatient physician, this is the most misunderstood conflict between patients and doctors. From the patient perspective, it’s inconsiderate, especially when many offices will reschedule if you are more than 10 minutes late. Traffic, child care, finding a ride, time off work. So many factors go into just getting to a doctor’s appointment on time. From the physician perspective, there is a giant machine behind the doctor dictating how we run our clinics. Administration, reimbursement, regulatory hurdles like prior authorizations, balancing wait times with patient demand. If you asked most physicians how many patients they would like to see in a vacuum, most would choose a number that is far fewer than their current volume, but the healthcare system has other ideas. I wish we had an empathy contraption. Two people wear it and you instantly understand the other person’s experience. In lieu of that, these types of complaints and disagreements can be remedied with better communication. Give patients updates on the status of the clinic. Vast majority of people are reasonable, just communicate. Have a system for it.