The Solution To Rising Healthcare Wait Times

Rebecca Chi, Chief Client Experience Officer, discusses how to decrease patient waiting times as specialist appointment wait times lengthen.

JULY 1, 2022 – ​Accessing specialty medical care shouldn’t be difficult, yet 27% of people in the U.S. wait one month or more to see healthcare specialists. A survey by AristaMD of four in-demand specialties – cardiology, dermatology, endocrinology, and gastroenterology, revealed that appointment wait times for some specialties exceed 90-days.

Endocrinology has an average wait period of 67 days, which surpasses the overall survey average by 19 days. Gastroenterology generally has more providers per clinic, yet still averages a 64-day wait time per provider and a 16-day increase from the overall average.

While these metrics reflect a broader trend of rising healthcare wait times across the country, the daily impact on individuals is cause for concern. Each day that patients wait to receive specialty care, the likelihood the appointment will be canceled, or the person will suffer additional medical complications rises. The time-lapse to see a specialist is lengthening in the U.S., but one solution is working to effectively combat the wait-time challenge – eConsults.

The Issue of Long Wait Times

While endocrinology and gastroenterology top the wait-per-provider by specialty, several states are experiencing higher-than-average wait times as compared to the rest of the nation. For example, Oregon has the most extreme wait times with an above-average wait time across cardiology, dermatology, endocrinology and gastroenterology.