Scheduling a Doctor's Appointment: Why is it Difficult?

Have you ever needed to see your doctor but found yourself unable to get an appointment for days or weeks?  

Why does it seem almost impossible to get a doctor's appointment when you need it most?

If you’ve experienced this, you’re not alone. One 2023 study showed that the average wait time to get a primary care appointment was 21 days. 

Aside from being inconvenient, this can be a real problem for your health. Avoiding the doctor by skipping regular preventive care because you can’t get a timely appointment could lead to additional problems.

Perhaps you’re so fed up with the system that you make an appointment with just any available doctor. Or maybe you aren’t getting the level of care you need, because you see a nurse practitioner or a nurse instead of a medical doctor or a doctor of osteopathy.

In any case, you aren’t getting the kind of healthcare you need. It’s no wonder you’re asking—why is it so hard to get a doctor’s appointment?

By the end of this article, you'll understand the systemic issues of the traditional primary care model that cause this problem. Here are the four main reasons why scheduling a doctor's appointment is hard.

1. There is a primary care physician shortage in the United States.

This is one of the root causes of the problems. There aren’t enough primary care doctors in the United States. One study reported that the percentage of physicians in primary care in the U.S. decreased to about 25%. 

Another report from the Association of American Medical Colleges projected that the U.S. will face a shortfall of between 17,000 and 48,000 primary care physicians by 2034.

Why? One reason is money. Other medical specialties provide higher incomes upon graduation, and medical students graduate with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

Primary care specialties earn an average of $100,000-$160,000 less than other specialties, such as urology, radiology, or general surgery.

With thousands of dollars of debt to cover and the allure of higher salaries, it’s no surprise that more than 600 family medicine residency positions went unfilled in 2024. 

Another reason? The COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers in 2023, found that burnout is still lingering among primary care providers, with 32% of clinicians reporting high levels of burnout, stress, and moral injury. 

Simply put, there aren’t enough primary care physicians to treat the U.S. population, which brings us to the second reason.

2. The population is growing, which means more care is needed.

While the number of doctors practicing primary care in the United States is decreasing, the number of people needing care is increasing.

The 2024 Association of American Medical Colleges report projected the U.S. population will grow 6% by 2036, while the number of Americans 65+ will increase by 34%. More people are requiring more care by the year.

Combine too few physicians with a growing and aging population, and you’ve got a numbers problem. that leads to the next reason why doctor’s appointments are so hard to get.

3. Health insurance reimbursements drive physicians to overload their panels.

Traditional primary care doctors rely on health insurance reimbursements as their business' primary source of revenue.

If you get sick, you visit the office for an acute care visit and get treatment. Or you stop in for an annual check-up and get some preventive tests done. Those healthcare services are charged to your insurance, which then pays the physician’s practice for you.

The more patients your PCP sees, the more revenue the practice generates. 

Now, primary care physicians do not get into primary care to make money. They get into primary care because they love providing care for their patients. But at the end of the day, they still must keep the lights on, which means they see more and more patients. 

It’s not the physicians’ fault. They want to provide great care for their patients. But the system forces them to overload their panels – some doctors maintain panels of 2,300+ patients – and their schedules to stay in business.

However, just because they have thousands of patients to schedule does not mean they have more hours in the day.

When you call to schedule an appointment, it’s likely many of their other patients are either already on the schedule or trying to do the same thing.

4. And overloaded panels force physicians to overbook their schedules.

So far, we’ve established that too few primary care physicians are providing care for a growing, aging population that requires more attentive care.

Then, we’ve got a health insurance system that physicians rely on to keep their business afloat, and that incentivizes them to see large numbers of patients.

Lastly, with that many patients to manage, doctors still want to provide care to as many as possible. That leads to double-booking and crammed schedules, which add wait times at the office and in the exam room in addition to your wait for an appointment.

If you’ve ever arrived at your doctor’s office for an appointment, only to wait 20 minutes in the lobby and then another 10 minutes in the exam room, you know the feeling.

Doctors face a juggling act every day of providing excellent care for every patient they see while staying as close as possible to the schedule. And it’s pretty much impossible to get it right consistently.

How does concierge medicine make it easy to get a doctor's appointment?

Solving the issues regarding the traditional primary care model is a complex challenge.

However, there are alternatives to traditional primary care for patients right now. One alternative is concierge medicine, which evolved in response to the growing desire for more personalized medical care.

Now, you may be wondering, "What is concierge medicine?"

Well, it's also known as membership medicine and is an alternative to the traditional primary care model. Concierge practices reduce the number of patients each physician sees.

This allows concierge medicine practices to guarantee same-day or next-day appointments for sick care when you need it most while also reducing wait times in the office.

Interested in learning more about concierge medicine? Download our free Understanding Concierge Medicine ebook.