A recent survey finds that the vast majority of patients — 85% — say they have to wait anywhere from 10-30 minutes past their scheduled appointment time to see their doctor. And that waiting period is often the worst part of the doctor’s visit, according to patients.
A total of 63% said that the most stressful thing about going to their MD was waiting to be seen. And even after they see the doctor, less than half say they have a clear understanding of what they’ll have to pay before they walk out the door.
The survey, conducted for the design and development firm, Sequence, suggests there is a big technological gap between how patients interact with their doctor’s offices, and how they manage the rest of their lives.
Jojo Roy, CEO of Sequence, said many people “have such high expectations” about efficiency and speed of service when they use digital devices to book taxis, vacations, restaurant reservations and order products online, but that in the realm of health care, the experience “still lags.”
Roy said that among the 2,000 adults who participated in the survey, “the expectation is, sadly, pretty low” that they will get seen by a doctor at the time of their appointment, and with a minimum of paperwork.
“As patients and consumers, we somehow are willing to accept it’s not as seamless, not as efficient … as all of those other things are,” Roy said.
Possibly the biggest difference between how people deal with doctors compared to other aspects of their lives is the way in which they book appointments.
Currently, about 80% of travelers, for example, use an online site to book and pay for a trip.
In contrast, 88% of doctors’ appointments are scheduled by phone. Roy said that getting health-care providers to have most of their scheduling done online could help reduce both wait times and the stress many patients associate with office visits.
More than 60% of the people surveyed for Sequence said they would prefer getting a text alert before they left home notifying them that they won’t be seen on time. And more than half of the respondents said they wished there were screens in the doctors’ waiting room offices showing estimated wait times.
Roy said that doing more scheduling online also could greatly speed up, or even eliminate, the time spent collecting information from patients once they get into the office. Instead of filling out forms in the waiting rooms, he said, patients could enter their information online at the time they’re making their appointments.
About one-quarter of respondents said that they are asked, repeatedly, to provide or enter the same information on multiple forms or systems by their health providers, and that they always are asked to show their most current insurance information. But only 34% of the respondents said they are confident that the person behind the front desk at their doctor’s office knows who they are and the reason why they are visiting.
Roy said that doctors’ offices that embrace the use of digital devices and platforms to have patients schedule appointments, enter health data and to increase transparency about what a visit will cost, could gain a competitive advantage over offices that continue to rely on the old ways of doing business.
Information provided by CNBC