Summary: The Medical Office Waiting Room

The medical office waiting room: What is a reasonable period of time to keep a patient waiting? Explain.
No matter what time your appointment is, it seems like you have to sit around and wait forever to be seen by your doctor. They say that the average wait time is decreasing, per “Vitals.com the average wait time in 2015 is 19 minutes and 16 seconds, down a full minute from 2014”, so in 2017 it should be around a 15 minute wait time, you would hope. Their can be many reasons for a patient having to wait so long like: the doctor was running late, the patient was running late, an emergency occurred, poor scheduling, etc. They suggest that the best times to be seen, would be the first two patients in the morning, or right after lunch,
Then there are times that it can't be helped by the staff at all, for instance, if a patient arrives to their appointment late, then it throws everyone’s schedule off balance, then you have to consider each patients time with the physician, like if other issues come up besides the issues being seen about, if there are cause for concerns then your provider just can't ignore them, they have to take the time to cover those issues also. Some offices may run smoother, it really depends on the practice, and if they only see a few patients an hour and set aside open slots in the day for emergencies that may occur. The staff and the physicians need to have regular meetings to find a way and come up with solutions that they can work on and fix, to improve the functions of the office so they may run more smoothly for them and the
Talk to the physician first, at the beginning of the week and see how many hours he/she wants to work each day, or you can have a monthly schedule for the physician, just in case he/she takes time off. You will already have your regular appointments scheduled, then you can make time for walk-ins and emergencies that arise.
2. You can “group patients that have similar conditions and medical issues in the same day”. In this way you roughly know how long it will take for each patient to be treated and diagnosed, and also it will keep the flow of patients moving in a regular pace all day, this allows the physician to see more patients on a given day.
3. If you have more than one physician at your clinic, then they should alternate which one comes in early one week and which one stays late. This way your practice can open up earlier to start getting patients in and stay open much later, than other clinics, this allows for the after work flow patients to be seen without taking time off of work, and if emergencies arise. Plus this will put your clinic above your competitors, and hate to say it, but the odd hours you stay open, the more patients you will see, and more revenue will come