Study finds top frustrations that cost doctors their patients

On demand, not on hold — new research revealed the top hurdles that send patients running to a new doctor.

According to a survey of 2,000 Americans who’ve been to the doctor within the last year, sitting in the waiting room for more than 30 minutes (52%), inability to speak with a human being (48%) and difficulty scheduling an appointment (41%) are the top three instant doctor’s office “turn-offs.” First impressions matter too, as it takes just 20 minutes into an appointment for the average patient to decide whether or not they’ll come back to that doctor.

On average, survey respondents reported they typically wait on hold for eight and a half minutes when calling a doctor’s office to schedule an appointment. But those same respondents are only willing to wait on hold for about 10 minutes before hanging up when they are trying to schedule an appointment with a new doctor’s office.

Conducted by Talker Research on behalf of patient communications provider Klara, a ModMed company, results found that in a perfect world, it would take Americans an average of just seven and a half minutes to schedule that first appointment with a new doctor, including hold time.