Report Provides Average Physician Office Wait Times by State

Patients often consider time spent in the waiting room as a benchmark of quality, yet one national report found that in 2012, the shortest average wait time actually increased more than a minute from 2011, according to a March 28, 2013, press release from Vitals, a company that provides healthcare solutions to patients and physicians. Vitals’ annual wait time report is based on a database of more than 870,000 physicians and is designed to provide transparency in healthcare to help consumers make informed decisions. In 2012, Alaska had the shortest average wait time of the top five states (16 minutes, 28 seconds), followed by Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and North Dakota.