9th Annual Vitals Wait Time Report Released
30% of Patients Have Left A Doctor Appointment Because of Wait Time
NEW YORK, March XX, 2018 – There are several factors that come together to create a satisfying patient experience – clean office, friendly reception, attentive physician. Add to that list a reasonable wait time.
Now in its 9th year, the Vitals Index finds that 84 percent of people believe wait time is either “somewhat important” or “very important” to the overall experience at a doctor’s office. In fact, 30 percent of people reported they’ve walked out of an appointment due to long waits. What’s more, 1 in 5 report they’ve changed doctors because of long wait times.
The importance of wait time can be seen in the correlation between the amount of time a patient waits and a doctor’s average rating. Physicians with five-stars, the highest doctor rating on Vitals, had a 13-minute, 17 second wait on average. In contrast, doctors with a 1-star, the lowest rating, had a wait time average of 34-minute, 11 second wait.
Wait Time Effect on Doctor Rating
Star Rating
Average Wait Time
5
13 min, 17 sec
4
21 min, 32 sec
3
22 min, 11 sec
2
29 min, 34 sec
1
34 min, 11 sec
Surprisingly, people with poor access to health care were more likely to walk out of an appointment because of a long wait time. Only 20 percent of people who reported having excellent access to top-quality doctors said they’ve walked out of an appointment because of a long wait. In comparison, 53 percent of people who reported having poor access to health care have left a doctor’s office due to long waits.
STATE OF THE WAIT
Across specialties, the average wait time for a doctor in America currently stands at 18 minutes, 13 seconds. That’s down 22 seconds from last year, and the fourth consecutive decrease in wait times.
But how long a patient waits depends on where they live. For the second year in a row, Milwaukee ranked on top with the shortest wait time of 12 minutes 47 seconds. El Paso has been riding an even longer trend. For seven years, the city has placed at the bottom of the ranking. In fact, its average wait time increased one minute year-over-year, to an average 26 minutes 50 seconds.
2018 Cities with Shortest Wait Time
City
Average Wait Time
Milwaukee
14 min, 35 sec
Seattle
14 min, 38 sec
Saint Paul
14 min, 43 sec
Minneapolis
14 min, 55 sec
Portland
15 min, 6 sec
2018 Cities with Longest Wait Time
City
Average Wait Time
El Paso
26 min, 50 sec
Memphis
23 min, 44 sec
Miami
22 min, 29 sec
Las Vegas
21 min, 19 sec
Fort Worth
21 min, 1 sec
On the state level, Wisconsin leapfrogged New Hampshire for the lead this year. The Granite State added two minutes to their wait time over last year. The bad news is that for states at the bottom, the wait is only getting longer. Nearly all the states in the bottom five added one minute to their wait time year-over-year. For the fourth year, Alabama ranked last with an average wait time of 22 minutes, 19 seconds.
2018 States with Shortest Wait Time
State
Average Wait Time
Wisconsin
13 min, 23 sec
New Hampshire
14 min, 17 sec
Washington
15 min, 2 sec
Maine
15 min, 8 sec
Minnesota
15 min, 10 sec
2018 States with Longest Wait Time
State
Average Wait Time
Alabama
22 min, 19 sec
Mississippi
22 min, 13 sec
West Virginia
21 min, 23 sec
Louisiana
20 min, 35 sec
Nevada
20 min, 29 sec
So what do people do as they wait for a doctor? As a sign of the time, 44 percent said they look at their phone or another electronic device. But doctors shouldn’t cancel their magazine subscriptions just yet. About 55 percent said they browse through the stacks of glossies in waiting rooms.
Vitals’ annual Physician Wait Time Report, now in its ninth year, was compiled from patient-reported wait times from 2008 through the end of 2017. Vitals also surveyed over 675 online respondents in a March 2018 poll.