Waiting Times Increasing.
In a story if today’s Dallas Morning News is an article decrying increasing waiting time in doctor’s offices. There are two problems with the story, if true. First, the comcern is about waiting times of more than an hour. There is no excuse for waiting times in either the waiting room or examining room of more than 5-10 minutes. Anything more is an example of poor management and should bring penalties from third party payers. Second, a reason given is a shortage of doctors. This is another misconception foisted on the public. There is no shortage of doctors, only a shortage of primary care doctors due to the training policies of medical schools, abetted by federal granters who favor specialty training programs, Medicare which pays for procedures rather than advice, and the medical school accreditors who are for the most part either PH.Ds. or medical specialists. This may well be one of the side efects of good intention which has recently focused on quality of care using procedures to measure quality, not outcomes desired by the public.
