Medscape surveyed 20,329 physicians across 29 specialties for the report.
Here are six statistics on physicians’ relationships with their patients.
1. When it comes to discussing cost of treatment with patients, 40 percent of physicians do it regularly, 45 percent do it occasionally and 15 percent never do it.
2. The majority of office-based physicians (75 percent) do not charge patients for a no-show. Twenty-two percent of office-based physicians do charge, however. Those who charge said a no-show policy helped them avoid double-booking time slots, in order to make sure all time slots were filled.
3. Four types of no-show policies were commonplace among physicians who had a policy. They are:
- 57 percent charge if a patient doesn’t cancel within 24-48 hours of an appointment
- 13 percent charge if a patient doesn’t show up for an appointment
- 18 percent charge if a patient doesn’t show up at least twice for an appointment
- 7 percent charge a third time a patient doesn’t show up for an appointment
4. The majority of physicians (56 percent) spent between 30 hours to 45 hours of their week with patients.
5. Concerning time spent with patients:
- 5 percent of providers spent less than 9 minutes
- 22 percent spent between 9 minutes and 12 minutes
- 29 percent spent between 13 minutes and 16 minutes
- 33 percent spent between 17 minutes and 24 minutes
- 11 percent spent 25 minutes or more
6. Conversely, concerning hours spent on paperwork and administration:
- 11 percent spent less than five hours
- 18 percent spent between 5 hours and 9 hours
- 38 percent spent between 10 hours and 19 hours
- 32 percent spent 20 or more hours
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