Average Patient Appointment Wait Time Is 26 Days in 2022

September 15, 2022 - The average patient appointment wait time is up 8 percent since 2017 and 24 percent since 2004, with the latest data from Merritt Hawkins showing it takes around 26 days for a new patient to get an appointment with a provider in 2022.

The report, published by Merritt Hawkins as an offshoot of AMN Healthcare, looked at the 15 largest metropolitan areas in the United States and showed that appointment wait times—defined as the time it takes for a patient to get a medical appointment on the calendar—is higher than ever before.

“Physician appointment wait times are the longest they have been since we began conducting the survey,” Tom Florence, president of AMN Healthcare physician search division, stated publicly. “Longer physician appointment wait times are a significant indicator that the nation is experiencing a growing shortage of physicians.”

In 2022, the average time to get an appointment scheduled was 26 days, an increase from five years prior when it took 24.1 days. In 2004, when this survey was first conducted, it took 21 days for a new patient to book an appointment.

Patient appointment wait times were more egregious in some specialties than others. For example, the average wait time for a dermatology appointment was 34.5 days, which was both the longest appointment wait time in 2022 and a 7 percent increase from the 2017 survey. Dermatology wait times were as long as 84 days in Portland, Oregon, and as short as nine days in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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Wait times for obstetrics/gynecology weren’t far behind, with the typical patient waiting 31.4 days for an appointment. That’s up from the 26.4-day wait time seen in 2017. Philadelphia saw the longest wait times at 56 days, while the shortest waits were in New York City at 19 days.

Meanwhile, the average patient appointment wait time for a cardiology appointment was 26.6 days, an increase from 21.1 days in 2017.

Orthopedic surgery saw the shortest average appointment wait times, with the typical patient waiting 16.9 days to get an appointment, up from 11.4 days in 2017. That said, the disparity in appointment wait time by region was staggering; in San Diego, patients wait an average of 55 days to see an orthopedic surgeon, while those in Washington, DC, wait only five days.

These findings are concerning and indicative of a looming provider shortage, Florence said. The Merritt Hawkins survey has always looked at metropolitan areas; rural regions are likely to see even worse wait times, he indicated.

“Major cities like those included in the survey have some of the highest ratios of physicians per capita in the country, yet physician appointment wait times are increasing,” Florence said. “It’s a sobering sign for the rest of the country when even patients in large cities must wait weeks to see a physician.”

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Interestingly, the typical appointment wait time in family medicine has gone down, suggesting it could be easier for a new patient to get in for primary care.

In 2022, the typical patient must wait 20.6 days to see a family physician, down from a 29.3-day wait time in 2017. That amounts to a 30 percent decrease, the report authors said.

Portland had the longest average wait times at 44 days, and Washington, DC, the shortest at eight days.

These changes reflect the shifting landscape of primary care, as alternative care sites in urgent care and retail health clinics, plus expanded scope of practice for advanced practice providers, become more commonplace.

“The number of urgent care centers and retail clinics is exploding, creating a new front door to the healthcare system,” Florence explained. “As a result, accessing a family physician, while still challenging, can be less difficult.”

As healthcare continues to assess how a dwindling provider workforce may impact patient access to care, it’d be wise to consider how shifts in payment may also impact care access. For example, the number of providers accepting both Medicare and Medicaid is going down.

In 2022, 82 percent of physicians in the 15 metropolitan markets analyzed accept Medicaid, down from 84.5 percent of whom did in 2017. That amounts to a 4 percent decrease.

And although on the rise, the number of physicians accepting Medicaid is still low, only at 54.1 percent.

Insurance acceptance is a critical piece of patient care access. If a clinician does not accept a patient’s insurance plan, that patient may not be able to access that provider lest she be on the hook for extreme out-of-pocket costs.

Longer and longer appointment wait times could be a detriment to the patient experience, separate research has shown. A 2018 survey looked at wait times in an office lobby, not the wait time to obtain an appointment, but nevertheless saw patient experience risks.

Thirty percent of patients who think they are waiting too long to get into the exam room said they’d leave before the appointment starts; 20 percent said they’d change providers altogether if they have a negative waiting room experience.

Dermatology offices should be particularly wary of these trends. A 2019 report looking at wait times and patient experience in dermatology showed that 70 percent of patients wished they had a shorter wait time for their appointments. Meanwhile, 90 percent of respondents said their conditions worsened while waiting to see a dermatologist.