As detailed in CNN Money, the firm surveyed the average time it takes for someone to see a new doctor for a non-emergency issue. The survey covered five specialties – cardiology, dermatology, OB/GYN, orthopedic surgery and family practice – and focused on 15 large metropolitan areas.
The results? The average wait time was 18.5 days – and that's an improvement over 2004, when the average was 20.9 days.
For example, a parent with a sick child in Boston would have to wait 66 days to see a doctor if it wasn't an emergency, while the same parent in Dallas would only need to wait five days. For a dermatology visit, the extremes ranged from 72 days in Boston to 14 days in Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Diego. And a first-time, non-emergency OB/GYN visit would take 46 days in Boston and 35 days in Portland, Ore., or eight days in Los Angeles.
For those Beantown bashers, Boston didn't have the longest wait for a cardiology appointment (27 days, versus 32 days in Washington D.C. and 28 days in Denver and San Diego) or an orthopedic surgery consult (16 days, versus 18 days in Detroit and San Diego). But Boston does boast 450 doctors per 100,000 residents, more than any of the other cities surveyed.
The CNN Money article also examines waiting times for Medicaid patients, and found that the wait is indeed longer. That's because only 45.7 percent of the doctors surveyed accepted Medicaid patients in 2013, down from 55.4 percent in 2009. And here's a bit of good news for Boston: The city ranked highest in percentage of doctors who accept Medicaid patients, with 73 percent (Dallas ranked the lowest, at 23 percent).
So, if your child had a nagging cough, would you wait a week to see a doctor in Dallas – never mind more than two months in Boston? Or would you prefer a conversation via text, e-mail or even video within an hour or two? Skip the scheduled trip to the doctor's office, have a few nagging questions answered, maybe get a prescription or two to make sure this little health issue doesn't become more serious?
Sounds like a no-brainer.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Eric Wicklund
Quelle/Source: mHealth News, 17.02.2014
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