Mr. and Mrs. Patel arrive at the Center for Mrs. Patel’s colonoscopy, at 11 am she’s the last scheduled case for the day. Mr. Patel does most of the speaking as you get all the paperwork ready for Mrs. Patel. Everything goes very smoothly at check in and Mrs. Patel goes back for her procedure.
Once Mrs. Patel goes back you are notified that there are delays. You go to tell Mr. Patel, but he’s not in the waiting room, you have things to do and get busy. The cases before Mrs. Patel have complications, so her case doesn’t even start until 12:30, a hour and a half after her scheduled start time. They ask you to inform Mr. Patel, but it’s time for your lunch and in your haste to get to lunch, you forget.
You get back from lunch at to find Mr. Patel at the desk, demanding to know why his wife isn’t ready to be discharged. He tells you he’s ready to go and has things to do this afternoon. You tell him her case just started a half hour ago, he gets upset, and tells you her case was supposed to start at 11, why did it just start a half hour ago? How come no one told him? What could have been done to avoid this?