Why Time Affects Patient Satisfaction

Are you spending less time with your provider?

You’re not alone. Average time spent with doctors is decreasing. Many people are turning to Independent Practices like Thrive Wellness to receive the personalized care they deserve.

Online medical resource Medscape released its 2016 Physicians Compensation Report. It features data from more than 19,200 doctors in 25 specialties. More importantly it includes information on how many minutes (on average) doctors say they spend with each patient. The most common answer reported was between 13 and 16 minutes.

Patient satisfaction increases when doctors spend more time with them.

Thrive Wellness spends up to 1 hour in the initial consultation and is focused on making a difference with patient satisfaction. This often means increasing our time spent with patients.

In August 2017, we conducted a survey of our current patient base. This was done to better understand the correlation between appointment length and patient satisfaction. We discovered that 98% of patients believe length of appointment is important to meeting their healthcare needs. While 100% of patients surveyed believe the quality of our care was “very high quality (83%)” or “high quality (17%)”.
 
An article supporting Independent Physicians suggests one important reason for choosing an Independent Physician is quality time spent with doctors.

 
Typically, Independent Doctors like Thrive Wellness don’t have daily patient quotas to meet. In turn, spending more time with each patient and understanding their personal needs. This enhances the quality of care which could lessen misdiagnoses and potentially decrease costs.
When physicians spend more time with their patients they often grasp the needs of their patients better. This provides personalized care based on need rather than using an “if this, than that” Healthcare formula to diagnose or treat patients.
When choosing your next physician, GYN or healthcare professional make sure to ask how long you typically see your doctor in each meeting up front. Your overall satisfaction might depend on it.