Trying to get an appointment with a medical doctor can take a while.  This is because there is a doctor shortage after burnout of Covid and electronic health records.  

Chiropractors are doctors too but most are in small offices with different software which makes availability a bit easier.  

Medical doctors can have a As three week long wait or even a little longer in some cases.  

A new survey concluded that the wait time to get into see a physician has been slowly ticking upward the past decade, reaching an all-time high of 24 days beginning in 2017.  It is now even harder to get into seeing your primary and sometimes even urgent care because of staff issues.  What this does is force patients to go to the emergency room.  This along with rises in Covid cases can mean that an urgent issue can become life threatening if there are not enough staff and beds.  

There are a number of reasons for the increase in wait times for medical doctors:

1. Shortage of doctors

2. Increase in the number of people with health insurance

3. Extra time burden on doctors to deal with electronic medical records

4. Staff shortages

5. Doctor burnout

The 2017 Survey of Physician Appointment Wait Times was conducted by Merritt Hawkins, researchers received responses from 1,414 physicians in 15 metropolitan areas in the United States.

Doctors with low availability were from five medical specialties:

• Family medicine
• Cardiology
• Dermatology
• Obstetrics/gynecology
• Orthopedic surgery

Researchers said the survey showed that the wait time for a new patient-physician appointment has risen to an average of 24 days.  This was in 2017.  Numbers have been increasing over the years after Covid.  

That compares with 18 days in 2014, 20 days in 2009, and 21 days in 2004. Rural areas was a 32 day waiting period. 

Merrit Hawkins has quoted “Finding a physician who can see you today, or three weeks from today, can be a challenge, even in large urban areas where there is a relatively robust supply of doctors. The challenge becomes even more difficult in smaller communities that have fewer physicians per population.”

Kurt Mosley, vice president of strategic alliances for Merritt Hawkins, said the current and pending shortage of doctors is a prime cause of the increase. He noted this is particularly true in Boston, which had the highest average wait time with 52 days.

Wait times can create a fallout:

1. Preventative medicine can not be obtained and diseases will increase

2. More serious illnesses will increase due to postponing appointments

Experts said people who have to wait several weeks to see a doctor might just skip routine or preventative medicine appointments. That can lead to consequences down the road. People can develop more serious ailments from ignoring symptoms or postponing healthcare.

Everyone can get burned out. Even doctors.  

Half of practicing doctors were feeling burnout in 2015 and that has increased over the years.  

One case is that of Dr. Louise Henson, a family practice physician in Texas.  She has been working as a temporary doctor for over 10 years.   

She states that “For years, I worked with the underserved in a typical medical setting, putting in long hours and taking my turn on call,” Henson told Healthline. “As a locum, I can pretty much set my schedule and work 40-hour weeks. I do my job when I’m on the job without having to worry about if I’m going to be able to take off time for my family or other personal commitments.”

Patients are beginning to understand that it takes weeks to months to get an appointment with their doctor or nurse practitioner and are beginning to plan ahead or go to emergency if pain or symptoms become too much to handle. 

Chiropractors are doctors as well with a specialty in the nervous and musculoskeletal systems.  We strive to try and help immediately but it not always able to see patients right away.  However, there is a misconception that we should be able to "fit people in".   We try but do have physical limitations and office hours like most doctors.  

I often wonder why potential patients get so upset that they can not be seen the day they call the office when they have not been seen before.  Reasons for this are that we have to do a thorough exam, consult, diagnostics and may not have availability that day.  It takes time to figure out a new person and what their needs and get results.  We make our adjustments look easy because we are professionals but that does not mean that we do not need time for analysis.  

Just like your primary care physician, we are not an emergency room and though we want to help you as quickly as we can, we may not have the time the same day.  We can normally see patients within the same week or next day which is way sooner than 30+ days.  I have heard patients say that we don't care because we don't fit them in the schedule.  This is just not true.  Chiropractors just like medical doctors care but we are people and we can not work 24 hours a day.  

That is one reason why preventative care like chiropractic, massage, acupuncture is needed so that emergency, same day care is not necessary unless there is an unpreventable accident.  Getting body work is necessary for proper movement and health longevity.  We try as much as we can to help when there is an accident but remember that we are doctors that see patients much faster than most and try as hard as we can to keep people out of pain and the emergency room.  

Our San Francisco and Redwood City scheduler is available 24 hours a day and easy to use.  Please contact us today and we will do our best to get you in to see Dr. Amie Gregory, DC, CCEP.  She is a holistic and sports chiropractor in the mission district in San Francisco and downtown Redwood City.  Contact us today! 

References: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/why-you-have-to-wait-longer-to-get-a-doctors-appointment#Crunching-the-numbers