Are wait times for medical appointments getting longer where you live?

Quickly. I am glad that I have a family doctor.

Gall blader removal surgery, broken shoulder surgeries, and MRI have been quick and awesome.

Three months is a short wait here (southeast US) where it used to be 3 days to maybe a week. It’s the wait for test results that drives me crazy!!!

No I can get an appointment tomorrow, maybe PA , but I’m in.

I can’t say what’s prevalent in this area, but I can say that the doctors I see are scheduling way out, like six months or more. I have to make a fuss to be seen sooner. Some of those belong to the same clinical group, so they may not represent a general trend. But I can tell you for sure that this is not how it used to be.

It’s a national thing. I think doctors expect patients to go to urgent care to be seen quickly.

Where I live, an appointment to see my regular doctor has to be scheduled months in advance. Lots of doctors have retired since the pandemic is what I’m told is the reason why.

I have always had to wait a long time (sometimes months) to get an appointment at some doctors and a few days at others. I don’t think it’s worse now for me.

When people against socialized medicine used to say that people in Canada and the UK have to wait a long time for an appointment, I always replied, sometimes I wait months for an appointment in the US.

If you have an urgent issue, push to be squeezed in. If the appointment person isn’t helpful leave a message for a nurse or the doctor. I’ve learned the hard way that I could have and should have been squeezed in.

Some doctors have waiting lists if an appointment opens. Make your appointment, but also get on the list if yours has this, some are automated.

@LadyMarissa If you mean tests like blood tests, you can get them directly from the lab, usually very quickly. Even MRI’s and xrays you can get the report as soon as it’s ready.

Blood test results and other tests usually are put up on the patient portal within a day or two, for me.

@jca2 Agreed. My primary physician told me that the pandemic affected the number of physicians in my town. Some apparently got sick and died, others who were close to retiring anyway decided to go ahead, some moved. The total of physicians has gone down by 30%, many of whom were women.

Normally I could have gotten in to see my primary within a week. Last time it took 3 months. My physiatrist performed a procedure and told me to see him again in 2 weeks. I had to wait 6 weeks.

Yes. All our doctors are through Mass General Hospital in Boston.

We have been on a waitlist for one type of doctor for a year.

Our PCP used to able to get us in within days, were super responsive with great customer service. Now it takes 3–6 months to get an appointment and they rush you in and out in 10-minutes. I’ve emailed and left them multiple messages to update a prescription and it’s taken them over a month to get it done.

I find I can get appointments with specialists faster, with 1–2 months.

Wound care and dermatologists (both use PAs), I can get an appointment within a week.

My PCP has PAs that can see me same day!

No. It’s easy. But to be fair, my part of Atlanta is overstocked with hospitals and clinics (and the concomitant doctors’ offices and ancillary services).

There are four big systems (Emory Univ Hospital and clinics, NorthEast Georgia Medical Care, Piedmont Hospital and their clinics, and Northside Hospital (and their clinics).

But then, Atlanta is a big city.

We have urgent care centers, but I haven’t had to go to one of them in I don’t know how long. I have a regular primary doctor and about four other specialty doctors. All of them want to see me every 3 months or so because of my health issues, so I just make my appointment for the next time when I’m leaving the current appointment.

But when I got out of the hospital recently, I was able to get a fairly quick telehealth appointment with my primary doctor. Like within a week.

I was not ever one to book an appointment a year away, when I’m leaving the doctor’s office and they ask would you like to book your next appointment. However, because it’s often so difficult to get an appointment now, I’ll just book it so I have it.