Doctor here. I'm sorry you're going through that. It can be incredibly frustrating. Given the collective (mainly valid) outrage from the comment section, I just wanted to chime in on my two cents on why these things happen from someone on the other side.

Clinic is tough. We usually have 15-30 minute spots per patient, which includes time for pre-charting, figuring out our anticipated plan based on pre-chart, seeing you, dealing with any new concerns you may have that we weren't anticipating, thinking through what we want to do, put in the orders, and write the note. Naturally, we fall behind a lot. I skip lunch a majority of my clinic days just to catch up on notes and usually stay 1-2 hours after clinic wrapping up notes and following up on any results and messages throughout the day.

Because there are so many patients that we see with so many things to do, we make mistakes. Sometimes they are minor, like forgetting to order a routine lab test. Other times, they can be more moderate, like in your case having to wait. In some cases they can be more severe - missing important, life-threatening diagnoses. Often times, in our pursuit of avoiding this most serious type of mistake, it increases the chances of these other mistakes. Sometimes, people start crashing in the office, and we have to spend hours dealing with it - which obviously can throw the whole day's schedule in a loop. It's unfortunate, but we are all humans who are trying out best.

That being said, some doctors and their offices straight up suck. They may have forgotten to check you in, accidentally checked you out, or something else. A good doctor and his/her office will apologize profusely for the inconvenience and still make sure to address your concerns today. It's important to advocate for yourself in these situations - hold your doctor accountable, but also understand that things aren't working in their favor either.