Portland, Ore., residents can expect to wait 40 days, on average, to be seen as a new patient in physician offices. New Yorkers can plan to wait nearly half as long.
The findings come from AMN/Merritt Hawkins' 2022 Survey of Physician Appointment Wait Times and Medicare and Medicaid Acceptance Rates.
Researchers for AMN/Merritt Hawkins contacted physician offices in 15 major metropolitan areas from March through mid-May to schedule a new patient appointment. Researchers focused on five medical specialties: cardiology, dermatology, obstetrics-gynecology, orthopedic surgery and family medicine. First appointment times were obtained from a total of 1,034 distinct physician offices.
Eight key takeaways:
- The average wait time for a physician appointment for the 15 large metro markets surveyed in 2022 is 26 days, an 8 percent increase from the 24.1 day average in 2017 and a 24 percent increase from the 20.9 day average in 2004.
- Portland has the highest average new patient physician appointment wait time — 45.6 days — across all five specialties of the metro markets surveyed.
- New York has the lowest average new patient physician appointment wait time — 17.4 days — across all five specialties of the metro markets surveyed.
- The average wait time to see an obstetrician-gynecologist is 31.4 days, up 19 percent from 26.4 days in 2017.
- The average wait time to see a dermatologist is 34.5 days, up 7 percent from 32.3 days in 2017.
- The average wait time to see a cardiologist is 26.6 days, up 26 percent from 21.1 days in 2017.
- The average wait to see an orthopedic surgeon is 16.9 days, up 48 percent from 11.4 days in 2017.
- The average wait time to see a family medicine physician is 20.6 days, down 30 percent from 29.3 days in 2017.
Metro areas ranked by the average wait time for an appointment across 5 specialties
Portland: 45.6 days
Boston: 33.8 days
Minneapolis: 30.8 days
San Diego: 30.2 days
Miami: 29.2 days
Philadelphia: 28.2
Seattle: 28.2
Denver: 26.8 days
Los Angeles: 22.2 days
Dallas: 21 days
Atlanta: 20.2 days
Houston: 20.2
Detroit: 18.8
Washington, D.C.: 18 days
New York: 17.4 days