The text comes at 6 the evening before.
“Your appointment is tomorrow, Thursday, at 9:00 AM. Please arrive 15 minutes before your appointment. Cancellations within 24 hours will be charged. Please confirm.”
She confirms.
She is at reception at 8:45, they ask for her ID and tell her to have a seat.
At 9:00 she is in the waiting room. At 9:25 she is still there. Nobody comes out to say why.
The text was written by nobody. Hers came with the booking software. Someone filled in the template the week the system went live, and nobody in marketing has opened it since.
It asked her to come 15 minutes early. It never said the doctor might be running late, or that the patient before her was taking longer. A single text from the front desk would have fixed it.
By the time her name is called, she has spent 40 minutes in the building.
The doctor asks how she is.
“Fine,” she says.