Patients Value Short Wait Times—a Major Selling Point for Urgent Care

The average wait times to see a physician across multiple settings dropped 5 minutes in 2017, compared with 2016, but patients continue to confirm that comparatively longer wait times most often equate to lower satisfaction with their overall experience. Given that convenience is one key attribute of urgent care, this offers insight into the ongoing growth of the industry. The most recent data from the Medical Group Management Association reveal that the average wait time in clinician practices was 20 minutes. For purposes of the survey, “wait time” was defined as the amount of time that elapsed between check-in and walking into the exam room (whereas in urgent care the standard is to track the patient’s total visit time, not the time they’re kept waiting). To look at that another way, the data don’t take into account the patients who wait weeks to see a specialty provider, perhaps not fully realizing the broad capabilities of their closest urgent care center.