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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 May 1.
Published in final edited form as: Health Aff (Millwood). 2017 May 1;36(5):826–832. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2016.1478

Exhibit 2.

Wait and Arrival Times by Patient and Visit Characteristics

Share of visits Wait timea Arrival timeb
Median % over 20 min Median % on time
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
All 100.0 4.1 17.0 −5.7 67.6
Age
 <5 8.2 4.0 13.4 −2.8 59.9
 5-14 9.1 3.7 14.3 −3.8 62.4
 15-24 8.7 4.6 16.7 −3.3 61.0
 25-44 20.5 4.8 17.7 −3.8 62.4
 45-64 27.9 4.1 17.8 −6.3 69.8
 65+ 25.6 3.2 17.8 −8.7 76.0
Gender
 Female 61.2 4.3 17.5 −5.3 66.8
 Male 38.8 3.6 16.2 −6.2 69.0
Primary insurance
 Private 63.1 4.1 16.3 −5.0 66.5
 Medicaid 10.8 4.6 18.0 −4.5 62.9
 Medicare 20.9 3.3 18.1 −8.5 75.0
 Self-pay 3.3 5.2 19.5 −3.6 60.6
 Other 1.9 4.1 19.2 −5.3 64.8
Time of day
 Before 10am 25.5 3.8 14.4 −4.6 65.3
 10am - 12pm 27.2 4.6 19.5 −6.2 69.0
 12pm - 2pm 14.6 3.8 15.2 −5.3 66.8
 2pm - 4pm 24.6 4.3 18.3 −6.4 69.3
 After 4pm 8.1 3.2 15.9 −5.6 66.8
Practice sizec
 1 6.1 5.1 23.4 −3.9 60.9
 2 5.0 4.1 17.7 −4.7 64.9
 3-5 12.0 4.0 16.8 −5.4 67.7
 6-10 11.7 4.0 15.9 −5.3 67.7
 >10 65.3 4.0 16.6 −6.0 68.5

SOURCE Author’s analysis of data from athenahealth. NOTES Table is based on the baseline sample (N=21.4 million). Each observation represents an outpatient visit.

a

Wait time is the time (in minutes) between the patient’s check-in time or the appointment’s scheduled time (whichever is latest) and the time the patient is seen by a medical practitioner.

b

Arrival time is the difference (in minutes) between the time the patients checks in and the appointment’s scheduled time. Negative values imply early arrival; Positive values imply late arrival.

c

Practice size represents the number of medical practitioners filing claims at the practice.