How to Minimize Wait Time at The Doctor's Office, Emergency Room and Urgent Care

Are you tired of waiting for 30 minutes, an hour or even more to be seen at the doctor's office. The waits can be even longer at the emergency room or urgent care. With these tips I will help you minimize wait times and get in to be seen quickly.

Things You'll Need

• Telephone

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Instructions

• 1

  If you are going to the doctor's office for a check-up or another scheduled visit make the appointment try to make the appointment for first thing in the morning. The next best option is the first appointment after lunch. If you choose these appointment times the doctor will not yet be behind schedule and you will not have to wait as long.

• 2

  Next important thing in scheduling is the day of the week. On Mondays people will be calling in to make appointments for problems they have had over the weekends and on Fridays people will be booking appontments to have things checked-out before the weekend. Either one of these days is likely to be full and even have double booking of time slots. Bothe of these are things that will put the doctor further behind and thus increase your wait time. I recommend booking appointments Tuesday or Wednesday if possible.

• 3

  Next is in regards to quick care/ urgent care and emergency rooms. If you have a life threatening emergency call 911 and/or go to the nearest emergency room immediately. However if the emergency is not life threatening, something like a sprain/broken ankle, fever, dehydration, etc... you know you have to be seen but you would rather not wait for hours in the emergency room. In this case you can actually call emergency rooms and see how busy they are. For instance if there are two or three emergency rooms in your vicinity call and explain your situation and see if they can give you an estimated wait time. You might be suprised how it varies.

• 4

  Finally, if you have a choice, and this is an insider's secret. Go to a private hospital and not a public hospital. People are under the misconception that if they don't have insurance they have to go to the public hospital and as a result the waiting rooms are often packed. The law prohibits any hospital from turning away someone who comes in for emergency treatment regardless of ability to pay. So going to a private hospital even if you don't have insurance will likely get you in much quicker.