You’re sitting in a chair in the waiting room, and you’re starting to get antsy. It feels like it has been half a day and you just want to see the doctor and go home. We all know the feeling, we’ve all experienced long waiting room times. But have you ever wondered why it takes so long to get your time in with the doctor?

Of course, this varies from practice to practice. For example: the amount of time you will be waiting for your primary doctor vastly differs from how long you might wait for the dentist, and there are different reasons for both. However, this article focuses on how long you wait for your Retina Specialist and why.

At a retina office, the typical waiting room time ranges from three to four hours. At Back of the Eye MD, we strive and often achieve a total visit time of 1-1.5 hours. Still seems long? Let’s consider what needs to be accomplished in that time.

After being greeted by our wonderful secretary, Rebecca, there is check-in and insurance verification. You might not expect it, but insurance verification takes the longest. Keep in mind, Rebecca will be on hold, waiting on insurance companies. After this comes dilation with drops, examination, and testing. After the drops are put into the eye, the patient has to wait 10-15 minutes until the next step.

It is important to remember that emergencies can happen at any time and there can be complications with a patient, which may further increase your wait time. This might not make waiting any easier, and it definitely doesn’t make it fun, but the next time you find yourself wondering why you’re waiting so long, keep in mind all of the factors that come into play.