One of the posts I was meaning to write was about the amount of time we spend in waiting rooms. It was inspired by a conversation we had with the Hospital of the Future folks. However, the Freakonomics blog beat me to the punch:
My calculations from data from the American Time Use Survey suggest that this is a standard problem: the average adult American spends four hours per year waiting for medical or dental care, with each wait averaging around 45 minutes.
Pricing this time out at even half the average wage rate, the cost amounts to about $5 billion per year. Seems like a lot, and very inefficient, but what is the alternative?
I can’t stand waiting at the doctor. I always wonder why I bother making appointments if I’m just going to have to sit around the waiting room for an hour. Ugh.