Medscape released the Medscape Practice Workflow Report 2017: Physicians' Bottlenecks, Challenges and Time report, addressing challenges and opportunities to improve physician practice efficiency.
Here are 23 statistics from the report, focused on patient visits and efficiency.
Patients seen daily by specialists:
1. One to 10: 10 percent
2. 11 to 20: 39 percent
3. 21 to 30: 34 percent
4. 31 or more: 16 percent
How often specialists fall behind in their appointment schedule:
5. Daily: 25 percent
6. Several times per week: 37 percent
7. Once per week: 13 percent
8. Several times per month: 9 percent
9. Once per month: 4 percent
10. Less than once per month: 6 percent
11. Never: 6 percent
Reasons for falling behind:
12. Physician spends more time than a single visit allots with patients: 79 percent
13. Patients are late or don't have enough time to fill out paperwork: 66 percent
14. Time spent between appointments recording notes: 49 percent
15. Appointments are booked in too small of windows: 47 percent
16. Appointments are overbooked: 31 percent
17. Physician is on call tending to emergencies: 26 percent
Factors that would improve efficiency:
18. Better technology: 43 percent
19. More non-physician clinical staff: 38 percent
20. Fewer patients scheduled: 29 percent
21. More administrative staff: 19 percent
22. More physicians: 18 percent
23. None of the above: 8 percent