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Healthcare: How Long Do Patients Have To Wait?
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this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
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I imagine the US times are exclusive of the "maybe it will heal on its own and I won't need to bankrupt myself" pre-doctor waiting period. I know I needed ankle surgery for several years before I gave up and went to the surgeon. I work with a guy who has needed knee replacement for as long as I have known him (and the injuries were not fresh when I met him).
The above waiting periods are not exclusive to non-emergency situations either. I know someone who almost died trying to tough out appendicitis (the appendectomy was more expensive and complicated than it would have been if he had gone immediately as a result).
I really don't think the above anecdotal evidence are particularly rare or unique either.
According to the data source the US wait time is a Nationwide average...from 2022.
Gee, I can't imagine why getting a GP appointment would have been hard in 2022. It's not like there was anything going on.
Seriously, the study that this infographic is based on is pretty much junk no matter what country you live in.
IDK what the wait time is about on the green bar. I typically have no trouble getting a same-day general practice doctor appointment with a phone call in the morning, in the USA. Has been this way for all my life and I was born last century.
Specialist appointments are where I have encountered delays of weeks.
A regular Dr. appointments in my area are out 2 months.
Specialist are at 6 months. Some of them are out as long as 18 months .
My wife is going in for non-emergency surgery today, it's taken 6 months.
It's gotten bad enough that you have to go the ER or Urgent care for stuff a GP traditionally to handles.
Look up Providence Group, they purchase the local hospital system and have since fucked it up. Providers are leaving in droves because of their naked corruption.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/providence-to-pay-200m-for-illegal-timekeeping-and-break-practices/
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/providers/providence-agrees-158m-refunds-debt-erasure-settle-charity-care-billing-investigation
I do. That average wait time is from 2022 (pandemic anyone?). It also varied drastically depending on your exact location.
The "Study" can be found here - https://consumerchoicecenter.org/healthcare-time-saved-index/
If you click the link to the Access the Database you'll be taken to a Google Doc with sources. The first one up is the United States and if you go the "Average Wait Times" tab you can see that their source for the US was this article: https://www.forrester.com/blogs/hurry-up-and-wait-long-wait-times-cripple-access-to-care-health-outcomes-and-patient-experience/
It gets even worse when you check the next tab over regardarding Wait Times for Elective Surgery, there you find the data is from 2016! https://fee.org/articles/america-outperforms-canada-in-surgery-wait-times-and-its-not-even-close/
Oh, and "Non-Emergency" and "Elective" are NOT the same thing.
You're the outlier of outliers, then. General practice is booked weeks to months in advance for me.
and its not like you just go to non emergency surgery. there is a generally a process of identifying the need with the primary care that requires multiple visits so if the primary care takes a long time it effectively makes the non emergency surgery take longer to actually get done. This is even the case in emergency cases where it takes the primary to identify you have something very very wrong with you.