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Patient waits are getting longer, and some patients are walking away

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, August 29, 2005

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The New York Times continues its "Being a Patient" series this week with a look at the increasingly lengthy waits patients must endure at the hospital and doctor's office.

The article opens with a woman who waited for word on a CT scan to determine whether her cancer had spread to her lungs. The physician said he would be leaving in two days for a vacation, but would call with the results of her tests before then. The call never came, and the patient was forced to wait for potentially devastating news on whether her cancer had spread. She finally received word that the mass in her lungs was not cancerous, but the physician never called after returning from vacation, and the patient has not spoken to him since.

The story also deals with the sometimes hours-long wait in a doctor's office, as physicians overbook their schedules to compensate for any cancellations. Emergency rooms are also overcrowded and force unreasonable lengthy wait times on patients. Many of those patients simply leave before ever receiving treatment.

One physician in the article quit his three-physician practice and started anew in a two-room office with no staff. Because he had no staff or other normal overhead, he was able to reduce his patient load from 2,000 to 500 and eliminate long waits.

To read the complete report, click here.

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