Patient Waiting Times: What is Reasonable at Your Medical Practice? (2024)

FAQs

Patient Waiting Times: What is Reasonable at Your Medical Practice? ›

You should be aiming for the fewer-than-10-minute mark, as far as wait in the waiting room, and then less than 20 minutes from the time the patient is placed in the exam room until they see the doctor/practitioner (not the nurse/tech).

1. Understand how long is too long. While the fewest minutes patients spend in your waiting room is ideal, the average wait time across specialties for a healthcare professional is about 18 minutes. But 20 minutes is about the maximum amount of time patients are willing to wait before becoming frustrated.

Wait time affects how patients view the level of care they receive: 84% of patients say that reasonable wait time is somewhat or very important to a quality patient experience. In other words, the length of waiting is one of the parameters when measuring the level of care you receive.

“Just say, 'Hey, I've been waiting for 45 minutes and I wanted to check in because I need to get back to work,' or 'I need to go pick the kids up at school,'” Dr. Devine says. Being proactive like this is a good idea because the doctor may have a little flexibility to shuffle things around and see you ASAP.

The median physician in the sample spent a mean of 18.9 minutes with each patient (Figure 1). Physicians in the top quartile of visit length spent a mean of 24.6 minutes or longer with their patients, while physicians in the bottom quartile of visit length spent a mean of 14.1 minutes or less with their patients.

The average wait for an appointment with a physician for new patients is 26 days, according to a 2022 survey of 15 metropolitan areas by the physician recruiting firm Merritt Hawkins.

Some areas have programs to help, or mobile health clinics may be an option. If it takes too long to get in to see the doctor, ask for a telemedicine appointment, join the appointment cancellation list or ask if a nurse practitioner or physician assistant is available.

Average Wait Time (AWT), also known as Average Speed of Answer (ASA), refers to the duration an inbound caller spends in queue. This metric differs from Average Handle Time (AHT), which calculates the average length it takes an agent to complete a call or customer interaction.

Physical & Emotional Stress: Longer wait times can increase stress and worsen health conditions, both physically and mentally. 3. Economic Impact: Higher healthcare costs, especially if alternative or higher care is needed.

As the name implies, this metric tracks the average amount of time a patient must wait between checking in and seeing a provider. This is an important metric when it comes to staffing, scheduling, and providing insight into patient satisfaction.

Why do doctors make patients wait so long? ›

Doctors Are Double-Booked

Sometimes, medical practices schedule as many patients as possible within the given time. By “double booking,” they can increase the volume of patients they see. It also helps fill their schedule if they have “no-shows.”

Doctors, patients, different procedures, and varying preferences, among others, make medical scheduling a difficult endeavor. One solution that many medical practices employ to keep providers' schedules as full as possible is overbooking one or more patients into a single medical appointment slot.

If you feel your primary care doctor doesn't take your symptoms seriously, ask for a referral to a specialist or go to a different practice for a second opinion. A fresh set of eyes can be extremely helpful. Review how to present your symptoms factually, clearly, quickly, and without unnecessary minutiae.

Research on the time intensive care patients spend with at least one healthcare practitioner reveals that around 86% of that interaction was with nurses, compared to just 13% with physicians.

Doctors still spend most of their time on patient care.

Patient care-related activities – Interacting with a patient or family, communicating with or about patients, planning and reviewing records/results.

Spending more time with patients also allows for more shared decision-making. This collaborative approach enables patients and physicians to engage in in-depth discussions about available treatment options, meticulously evaluating the potential risks and benefits associated with each.

Physician Shortage

There is a long wait at many doctors' offices because there are simply not enough physicians to manage the load of patients.

The important thing to know is that it's never too late to find a new primary care doctor and it's never too late to make your health a priority. Even if you've been delaying care for years, you can still make progress toward a healthier future.

As doctors retire and hospitals expand their capacity, wait times and demands for current providers have only increased. Not only is the supply of healthcare providers decreasing, but demand is increasing.

Consider the age of our current medical workforce: Some 30 percent of working docs are 60 or older right now, on the cusp of retirement.” Another factor is that even as demand has expanded, there's been no significant expansion in funding for training new doctors.