this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
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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.