The average wait time to see a physician in the U.S. currently stands at 18 minutes, 13 seconds across specialties, which is down 22 seconds from last year. However, patient wait times vary significantly across cities, according to Vitals' annual Physician Wait Time Report.
To compile the Physician Wait Time Report, Vitals gathered data from patient-reported wait times from 2008 through the end of 2017. Vitals also surveyed more than 675 online respondents in a March 2018 poll.
For the second year in a row, Milwaukee had the shortest average patient wait time at 14 minutes, 35 seconds, while El Paso, Texas, has had the longest average wait time for seven years running, reaching 26 minutes, 50 seconds this year.
Here are the five cities with the longest average patient wait times.
1. El Paso, Texas (26 min, 50 sec)
2. Memphis, Tenn. (23 min, 44 sec)
3. Miami (22 min, 29 sec)
4. Las Vegas (21 min, 19 sec)
5. Fort Worth, Texas (21 min, 1 sec)
Here are the five cities with the shortest average patient wait times.
1. Milwaukee (14 min, 35 sec)
2. Seattle (14 min, 38 sec)
3. St. Paul, Minn. (14 min, 43 sec)
4. Minneapolis (14 min, 55 sec)
5. Portland, Maine (15 min, 6 sec)