Doctor Wait Times Vary Widely by Region

credit: Merritt Hawkins

How many days before you can book an appointment with a doctor varies greatly by location. In some parts of the country, it’s as little as five days to see a family practitioner and in other parts of the country it can be as long as 66 days.

A recent study looked at physicians in 15 metropolitan areas in the U.S. and found access to treatment might have as much to do with location as insurance. Researchers called practices and asked for the first available appointments for routine care such as check-ups or wellness visits.

Merritt Hawkins, the company that conducted the research, called nearly 1,400 medical offices between June and November of last year before the ACA (Obamacare) began enrolling patients.

The researchers also asked practices if they accepted Medicaid. They found a significant drop from 55.4 percent in 2009 to 45.7 percent for 2013. Acceptance did vary widely though, from 73 percent in Boston to 23 percent in Dallas. Just to point out:

Physician to population ratios does not appear to be a factor in wait times. Boston has 450.1 physicians per 100,000, the most of any city and Dallas has the least of any metropolitan area at 197.2. So what does contribute to wait times and how can we shorten them?

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement suggests looking at other industries and borrowing techniques to apply to patient wait times.

Some suggestions include:

• Bringing patients back for check-ups during less busy times of day
• Looking at staffing to make sure physicians and other HCPs are working when there is greatest demand
• Applying queuing theory to improve patient flow for minor procedures and lab work
• Making sure specialists are doing work that is truly needed, not something another practitioner could do earlier in the patient care chain

As a physician what do you think about the differences of wait times regionally? Do you think there is a correlation between accepting Medicaid and wait times? What have you done in your own practice to improve wait times? We’ll be discussing this in detail inside Sermo. If you are an M.D. or D.O. please join us.