Patients wait 27 minutes for the doctor

On average, cash patients must wait 27 minutes in waiting rooms for their treatment

07.09.2011

Anyone who takes a specialist appointment with an ophthalmologist, ENT specialist or cardiologist, must generally be patient in the waiting room for a long time. This was the result of a survey of company health insurance funds in Germany. Private patients are hardly privileged during the waiting time, here the waiting time was just over six minutes less. Some companies now specialize in the practice waiting area in the doctor's office and offer TV programs or magazines.

Most of the waiting rooms are barely comfortable or cuddly. Most doctors offer magazines, some relaxation music, or others a TV for time-lapse in the waiting room. For those who feel ill, the waiting can subjectively last for an eternity. But what can shorten the waiting and how great is the risk of becoming infected in the doctor waiting room?

According to a study by the German company health insurance funds (BKK), insured persons pay an average of 27 minutes (2008: 28 minutes) for treatment with the doctor. Private patients are favored over cash patients not only with the appointment of the doctor's appointments, but also with the waiting, as the survey showed. Private insured wait on average six minutes less, so an average of 21 minutes.

At the family doctor, patients have to wait almost half an hour
For the BKK study, a total of 6,000 insured citizens aged 14 and over were surveyed. The working title of the survey was "doctor's visit and waiting times". Many people feel especially fears at the dentist. The pleasing, here patients of the health insurance companies only have to wait a good 13 minutes to the actual start of treatment. Even with the gynecologist, the waiting times are tolerable, with 23 minutes women have to wait relatively short with the gynecologist. Mothers and fathers have to bring a little more time to the pediatrician. Here the time was 29 minutes until Erstsichtung the doctor. Just under half an hour, which can be bridged mostly for children with toys in the waiting room. The family doctor is currently waiting for 27 minutes (2008: 30 minutes). For the longest time cash patients have to wait for the ear, nose and throat doctor or the orthopedist. According to the survey, patients have to wait 37 minutes.

However, many doctors come up with something to make the patient's time in the waiting area as pleasant as possible. A common service are magazines of all kinds and interests. If you are lucky, you can read a current "mirror" or the latest Klatschnachrichten in the "colorful". Specialist paediatricians usually have interesting guides for parents, such as the pediatrician Dr. med. Schreiber in Hannover. "While my children try out toys that have been provided, I can take a look at the latest parenting guides," says Susanne Wegener, mother of two children. "Time flies by".

Flat screen televisions in German practices
The latest trend is flat screen TVs in the waiting areas. More and more doctors are resorting to this adequate means. Rightly so, because the competition in the cities is great, even doctors do not want to lose their "clientele" by "boredom in the waiting room". One company has meanwhile specialized in this service and has already installed 5100 of these televisions in German medical practices. Instead of brittle entertainment, short films on health care, local weather, therapeutic treatments, animal films or travel documentaries are on display. For the children also cartoons are shown. Once per hour, news is presented to the waiting audience. To finance the service, but also short commercials are shown. For the advertising environment such offers are of great interest, since the target group can be precisely defined. The influence of the pharmaceutical industry, which certainly books many such clips, remains questionable. However, so that patients are not disturbed too much, there is no sound. After all, not all patients want to look rigidly at the screen. If you wait more than an hour, you'll have to look at the same program again or again. According to a GfK study, almost 80 percent of patients rate the TV service as "very good" or "good". Seventy percent said they would welcome more outpatient practices offering such a TV service.

No increased risk of infection in medical practices
Many patients wonder if they can catch on other patients in the waiting room. As Winfried Kern of the German Society for Infectiology says, this is theoretically possible, but rather unlikely. "Unless you are directly peed," as the expert said. However, such a danger also exists in all other public areas of everyday life. Wherever people come together, you may come into contact with infectious diseases. The day has 24 hours, in every hour there is the danger of becoming infected. But how much time do you spend in a waiting room? Kern opposite "World Online".

Although private patients have to calculate less waiting times in practice, according to the BKK study more than 85 percent of Germans are covered by statutory health insurance. Only eight percent are fully insured with a private health insurance. Accordingly, the differences in treatment are barely noticeable. It is pleasing that doctors do not make any difference in acute cases. Anyone who suffers from a high fever or severe illness symptoms usually gets an appointment on the same day and does not have to wait too long. According to the survey, two-thirds of respondents were cared for the same day.

Long appointment waiting times with specialists
In the appointment, however, cash patients have to be patient much longer than private insurance. On average, insured persons waited 20 days for an appointment. Private patients received on average six days earlier a doctor's appointment. On average, health insurance companies had to wait eight days for treatment with the general practitioner. Anyone who wanted to make an appointment with the ophthalmologist had to wait over a month, namely 37 days. Female gynecologists currently have to wait 27 days and patients at the orthopedist's home for a good 29 days. If you are not an acute case, you have to wait at least 25 days for a dentist appointment. No one got 15 percent of the survey participants and therefore had to continue looking for another doctor.(Sb)

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