Thirty percent of patients said they have walked out of a medical appointment due to long wait times, and people who have poor healthcare access were more likely to leave an appointment for this reason, according to Vitals' annual Physician Wait Time Report.
To compile the annual Physician Wait Time Report, now in its ninth year, Vitals gathered data from patient-reported wait times from 2008 through the end of 2017. Vitals also surveyed over 675 online respondents in a March 2018 poll.
Here are four findings from the report.
1. The Vitals Index found 84 percent of people believe wait time is either "somewhat important" or "very important" to their overall experience at a physician's office.
2. The report revealed 1 in 5 patients said they have changed physicians because of long wait times.
3. Only 20 percent of people who said they have excellent access to top-quality physicians said they left an appointment due to long wait times.
4. However, 53 percent of people who said they had poor healthcare access have walked out of a physician's office due to long waits.