Passport Health

My entire experience here was very easy and simple. I called up and made my appointment two days before I actually came in. While Passport Health doesn’t have a sign in the shopping center, they tell you it is part of the dentist’s office.
I was seen by the nurse 5 minutes after walking in the door and filled out the necessary forms. I was then brought back to the little Passport Health office and went through my itinerary and the various recommended vaccinations. They didn’t push me getting anything beyond was required (I had done the research before).
Everything was fast, easy, and simple.

I am traveling to India in a few weeks, and need to get some vaccines and travel med prescriptions for the journey. I called up the Alexandria Branch of Passport Health’s Travel Clinic and asked to schedule the next available appointment, which happened to be the next day at 10:30am. The woman who scheduled my appointment told me the address of the location, and helpfully mentioned that it was inside a dentist’s office at that address, so I wouldn’t expect to see a huge «Passport Health» sign on the building. She also said no health insurance was accepted, the visit fee was $ 55 and each vaccine would cost between $ 40-​$ 100. Wow, that is a lot of money for this unemployed person.
I arrived about 10 minutes early and went into the dentist’s office, where I sort of checked in with the receptionist. I told her I was there for my 10:30am appointment with Passport Health, and she kind of shrugged and said, «okay.» I’m not ignorant to her reluctance; she works for the Dentist, not PH, so she has no reason to really edify or help me (though it would have been nice, on a human to human level.) Anyway, I sit down and start reading. There are only two other people in the waiting area, and since one was filling out paperwork, I assume she was there for the dentist. After she handed her forms in she was called away, while the other person loudly made phone calls and didn’t seem like she was expecting to go in anywhere.
Twenty minutes pass, I ask the receptionist if there is somewhere else I need to check in, because technically PH might not know I’m here: they don’t have a receptionist of their own and no doctor/​nurse/​specialist had acknowledged my existence yet. The receptionist sort of sighed and said the doctor was busy, then asked what time my appointment was. Another few minutes pass and she offers to go tell the doctor that I’m waiting. Which she did.
Another twenty minutes pass, with still no indication of when my presence might be recognized, or why my appointment 30 minutes ago has been so outrageously ignored. As I left I asked the receptionist to please tell the doctor that s/​he practiced incredibly poor customer service (for in the end, that’s what I was about to pay $ 55 for) and because of that, I was leaving.
Seems crazy, right? Me leaving when I had already waited so long? And I’m still without my vaccinations, true. First and foremost, I think that honoring my time in equal proportion to his/​her own is an important lesson for a doctor to learn. I understand that some strange incidence could occur with a previous patient that would require extra time, but if the doctor knows that another patient is waiting in excess of even 15 minutes, I think s/​he has the responsibility to speak with the waiting party and apologize for the inconvenience. I also think it’s important for customer service industry workers, ESPECIALLY doctors, to be punished with reduced income if they decide their clients/​patients are simply mindless cattle to be herded and prodded at their leisure.
At what point did we, as paying patients, decide it was «okay» to wait hours for our doctors, though we have rigidly adhered to the appointment slot they set up? Passport Health may have other customers willing to suffer those abuses to then pay for shots, but I will not be giving them my possible $ 300+ payment any time in the near or distant future. Luckily for me, DC is full of travel clinics, so I have plenty of other options.