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Your wait time is a message to every referring office
New-patient wait times keep growing across the country. For the doctors who refer to you, how soon you can see their patient is part of your reputation.
AMN Healthcare, 2025 Survey of Physician Appointment Wait Times. 1,391 physician offices in 15 metro areas and 6 specialties.
Ask a primary care physician what frustrates them about referring, and many will mention the wait. They see a patient who needs a specialist, send the referral, and later learn the first appointment is a month or more away.
Waits are getting longer
AMN Healthcare's 2025 survey of physician appointment wait times called more than 1,300 physician offices in 15 large metro areas, Dallas among them. The average wait for a new-patient appointment across the six specialties surveyed was 31 days, up from 26 days in 2022. In cardiology the average was 33 days. Orthopedic surgery was much shorter, at 12 days.
Referring doctors pay attention
In a national survey of primary care physicians published in the Annals of Family Medicine, 55% said the timeliness of their patient's appointment was a major factor in choosing a specialist. Wait times also affect whether a referral turns into a visit at all. In a 2018 study of more than 100,000 referrals in one health system, completed appointments had an average wait of about 20 days, while appointments that were never completed had an average wait of nearly 42 days.
A long wait doesn't only delay one patient. It teaches the referring office to try someone else next time.
What practices can do
- Measure from the referral, not the booking. Count the days from when a referral arrives to the patient's first visit. That is the wait the referring doctor experiences.
- Hold new-patient slots. Reserve a few openings each week for referred patients, and release them only if they go unused.
- Offer a fast track. Give referring offices a direct line for patients who need to be seen this week, and define what qualifies.
- Use your whole team. Where appropriate, an advanced practice provider can start the workup sooner while the patient waits for the physician.
- Tell referring offices when you have openings. A short note that you can see new patients this week is useful information, not a sales pitch.
- Reduce no-shows. Reminder calls and texts open slots you already have.
Why it matters for patients
Symptoms don't wait for the schedule. A patient seen in days instead of weeks gets answers sooner, worries less and is far more likely to keep the appointment.
Sources
- New survey shows physician appointment wait times surge: 19% since 2022, 48% since 2004. AMN Healthcare, 2025 Survey of Physician Appointment Wait Times.
- Kinchen KS et al. Referral of patients to specialists: factors affecting choice of specialist by primary care physicians. Annals of Family Medicine, 2004.
- Patel MP et al. Closing the referral loop: an analysis of primary care referrals to specialists in a large health system. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2018.