Some 38.2 percent of consumers say wait times of five to 10 minutes in the doctor’s waiting room are appropriate, while 35.2 percent think waiting up to 10 to 15 minutes is appropriate, according to Jobson Optical Research’s The Waiting Game survey. Twelve percent think it is appropriate to wait up to 15 to 30 minutes, while 10.5 percent think wait times are appropriate when they are under five minutes. Another 2.3 percent say it’s appropriate to wait 30 minutes to one hour in the waiting room while 1.7 percent feel it’s appropriate to have to wait more than hour.
Do you know how much time patients wait in your office? For the next week, keep track of how time is spent by each patient in your office. Record the start and end time at each place in your office where patients stop. For example:
Start time
End time
Time in minutes
Reception
Pre-test
Examintation
Auxillary testing
Optical
DFE
Check-out
Total time in office
Now look at the data and determine where you can become more efficient. Make sure you’ve identified and eliminated bottlenecks. Do you need to buy another piece of pretesting equipment or to hire another staff member? At the very least, look for places to insert patient education so that by the time patients get to your exam room or your optical, they’ve been prepared to purchase.
Managing wait times in your office will pay for itself many times over. This is the year to fix this problem.
