It seems waiting to see your local doctor is par for the course, with delays common even when you’re the first appointment of the day.  The frustration patients feel is summed up by a new paper from Duke University, which highlights long delays as a key factor in the negative reviews patients give to doctors online.

“Waiting to see the doctor is not like waiting in line for a fun ride at Disney World,” the researchers say.  “While a medical visit is important, it does not have the positive feedback of an amusement park ride where a two-hour wait seems worth it for even a short ride.  This isn’t entirely surprising, but our data shows it’s something doctors need to be aware of and should manage.”

The researchers analyzed 15 months worth of patient visit data from 22 different surgeons at Duke’s Medical School.  In total, this involved over 27,000 patient visits, including how basic interactions can improve the outcome of the visit, the relationship with the doctor and so on.

Long wait

The researchers assessed a range of factors, including the demographics of patients, the time spent in the waiting room, the time spent in consultations, how quickly notes were completed and electronic health records were responded to.

The data found that the average visit lasted around 85 minutes, but that for every 10-minute increase in time spent waiting to see the doctor, there was a 3% decrease in the score the patient would give the doctor in their overall satisfaction rating.  What’s more, they would also rate the communication of the doctor lower.

“Anytime you can improve scores by 3%, that’s big,” the researchers explain. “So if 10 minutes in the waiting room means a drop of 3%, that’s something that should be addressed, because it’s hard to make up for that in the actual doctor-patient visit.”