How Long Do You Wait for a Doctor’s Appointment?

It seems to take longer and longer before you can get to see the doctor. And a study by Merritt Hawkins and Associates, a consulting firm for health care specialists, confirms that this is the case, at least in the USA. A report in USA Today gives the results of their study.

The results of the survey were based on information from over 1,500 medical offices in 15 cities, and were compared with those from 2004. In all cities combined, and medical specialties combined with family practices, the average wait time between requesting an appointment and seeing the doctor was 20.5 days. This was over a week longer (8.6 days) than the average for 2004.

Among the 15 cities, Boston – one of the most medically-rich cities - had the longest wait times – 49.6 days! This may possibly related to the introduction of the new health system in Massachusetts in 2006, which required every resident to get health insurance. The next cities with longest wait time were Philadelphia and Los Angeles – 27 and 24.2 days, respectively – which are also cities with renowned medical facilities. The cities with the lowest wait times were Atlanta (11.2 days) and Detroit (12 days).

Although the health industry is experiencing a growth in total employees, there is still a dearth of nurses and physicians. In this environment, at a time when a new healthcare system is envisaged, the Boston wait-times experience is somewhat alarming. If everyone in the USA is to be enrolled in a health insurance program and the number and availability of physicians isn’t increased, there will be much greater increases in waiting times, everywhere.