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Cutting the time it takes to see a doctor

USA Today says Boston has the nation's longest wait times to get an appointment for a specialist. Beth Israel Deaconess CEO Paul Levy discusses the medical center's efforts to cut wait times for its clinics:

Over one year, the average wait time for all of our medicine clinics has dropped from 13 days to 4.4 days.

The hospital is trying to cut that to 3 days. Levy says part of the drop is due to the use of "mystery shoppers," who file detailed reports on their experiences as "patients."


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Comments

Is this not a product of having some of the best-rated medical facilities and staffs in the country (at least, last time I had heard)? High praise leads to high demand, which--when you only have a finite amount of time--means doctors really are booked solid for a while out. If that's the case, the best solution is to either make more hospitals, or crappier hospitals.

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The link to Paul Levy's blog article on wait times is
http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/2009/06/whos-...

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Thanks.

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In the last year, I've had:
2 month wait for a neurologist
3 month wait for a dermatologist
3 week wait for an endocrinologist

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