New-patient appointment volume and access are among the clearest indicators of a medical practice’s growth trajectory and overall health. These visits represent the front door to future revenue, downstream services, and patient retention. When wait times stretch too long, that door effectively closes.
Long waits discourage patients from establishing care, increase the likelihood they’ll seek services elsewhere, and may signal operational or capacity constraints that also impact existing patients. For organizations focused on expanding market share, maintaining referral pipelines, and meeting access benchmarks, new-patient wait times are a strategic priority and potential point of vulnerability.
A July 1, 2025, MGMA Stat poll found that two-thirds (66%) of medical groups reported wait times for new-patient appointments have stayed the same (40%) or shortened (26%) year to date compared to the same period in 2024, while 31% said wait times had increased. Another 3% were unsure. The poll had 269 applicable responses.
Practices with worsening wait times
- Many cited factors outside their direct control: rising patient demand, provider retirements or departures, and fewer available physicians in the market.
- While several respondents are trying to address access by hiring additional physicians or advanced practice providers (APPs), extending clinic hours, improving panel management, or adopting tools like AI and online scheduling, a notable portion indicated that they have either done little to address the issue or are still in the process of recruiting new staff.
- Community-level changes — like neighboring practices closing or local population growth — also contributed to the strain, suggesting that even proactive efforts may lag rising access challenges.
Practices with stable wait times
A range of modest adjustments were noted among leaders with similar wait times to last year, though many indicated that no major changes had been made:
- Several practices cited enhancements in scheduling efficiency, such as open access scheduling, adjusted physician templates, expanded clinic hours, or the use of waitlists. Others mentioned technology upgrades including online scheduling, electronic forms and check-in, and even exploratory steps toward AI solutions.
- Staffing-related changes included hiring or planning to hire new providers, mid-levels, or intake staff to help manage volume.
- Still, a substantial number of respondents explicitly stated that nothing had changed, underscoring a mixed landscape where some organizations are taking steps while others maintain the status quo.
Practices with shorter wait times
- The most common driver of shorter new-patient wait times was the addition of providers — both physicians and APPs — along with support staff to expand appointment availability.
- Many noted adjustments to scheduling practices, such as standardized templates, time-released appointment blocks, and strategies to reduce no-shows or better manage referrals.
- Technology improvements, including electronic check-in, self-scheduling tools, and waitlist notification systems, were also cited. Some practices redesigned workflows to keep providers more efficient or focused on third-next-available appointment metrics.
Overall, the results reflect a strategic emphasis on staffing, scheduling optimization, and patient access enhancements — which are vital in the face of the grim picture painted by national data: The average wait time for a new-patient appointment has increased to 31 days — up 19% since 2022 — according to a May 2025 AMN Healthcare survey of 15 metro areas. The study offers specialty-specific snapshots, as well:
- Family medicine: 23.5 days (up 14% since 2022)
- Cardiology: 33 days (up 23%)
- Dermatology: 36.5 days (up 6%)
- OB/GYN: 42 days (up 33%)
- Orthopedic surgery: 12 days (down 29%, one of the few specialties that improved)
Considerations for primary care specialties
Rising new-patient wait times in primary care reflect growing strain on access amid staffing and physical space constraints. The increase in wait times for family medicine appointments likely reflects a shift of low-acuity visits back to primary care from urgent care, expanded chronic disease management needs, and/or payer-driven incentives for preventive visits. Meanwhile, a national shortage of nearly 13,000 full-time primary care providers continues to limit appointment availability.
While many practices face structural hurdles like limited exam space and rigid scheduling templates, some are making headway by adopting targeted strategies:
- Expand care teams with physician-led pods that include nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs), increasing panel capacity.
- Implement advanced access scheduling by reserving short-notice slots to reduce no-shows and open more slots for new patients.
- (A November 2024 MGMA poll found only 11% of medical groups have most of their patients schedule appointments with digital tools.)
- Use asynchronous e-visits and triage tools for routine or refill requests, keeping in-person appointments available for higher-priority visits.
- Reassess visit lengths and EHR templates to support more flexible scheduling based on visit type and complexity.
These approaches help practices convert demand into access, laying the groundwork for sustainable growth.
Considerations for surgical specialties
A rebound in elective procedures and the complex logistics of surgical consults and OR time can heavily influence new-patient wait times, yet orthopedic surgery stood out as an exception in the AMN Healthcare study, reporting a 29% decrease in average wait times. This improvement might reflect efficiency gains from better scheduling systems and block-time management. Still, many surgical groups face persistent challenges, including hospital-controlled OR schedules, high no-show rates for initial consults, and delays tied to imaging and pre-op clearance bottlenecks.
To improve access and maintain throughput, surgical practices are adopting targeted strategies such as:
- Shared block-time dashboards to reallocate unused OR time across surgeons, reducing idle capacity and last-minute cancellations.
- Virtual pre-op consults, allowing patients to complete imaging reviews and clinical assessments remotely before surgery is scheduled.
- Centralized surgical navigator roles (e.g., RNs coordinating clearances and prior authorizations) to streamline the pathway from consult to procedure.
- No-show reduction efforts, including robust reminder systems and pre-visit engagement workflows — particularly for consults that may not feel urgent to the patient.
These strategies help shorten the time to surgery and better align OR resources with patient demand and provider availability.
Considerations for nonsurgical specialties
Nonsurgical specialties (e.g., cardiology, dermatology, endocrinology, and gastroenterology) are also experiencing longer new-patient wait times amid growing demand and limited provider supply, per the AMN study. As the population ages and the prevalence of chronic disease increases, specialty care needs are growing, yet the pipeline of fellowship-trained subspecialists isn’t keeping pace.
Compounding the issue are longer, more complex visits and limited procedure-room availability, particularly for high-volume services such as endoscopy and echocardiography.
To address these access challenges, successful nonsurgical specialty groups are deploying several ambulatory-focused strategies, including:
- Hub-and-spoke care model using teleconsults: A study in JAMA Dermatology found that asynchronous teledermatology triage — with a specialist at the hub and APPs at the spokes — significantly reduced wait times and improved efficiency in outpatient settings.
- Extended-scope technologists or nurses, such as dermatology RNs trained in dermoscopy, who can complete pre-visit imaging and assessments.
- Flexible weekend or after-hours clinics, particularly for high-volume procedures like colonoscopy or echocardiograms.
Considerations for multispecialty groups
Given their diverse service lines and integrated care models, multispecialty groups face a unique mix of challenges and opportunities when managing new-patient wait times. While shared infrastructure (e.g., imaging, labs, referral networks) can create operational scale, it can also introduce access bottlenecks if not strategically managed.
One common issue is internal referral leakage, where available slots are filled by lower-priority follow-up visits or by specialties that are quicker to schedule, crowding out access for true new patients.
Many groups still operate with siloed scheduling templates and decentralized governance, limiting cross–departmental coordination. Additionally, capital allocation can be a politically charged process, with specialties competing for exam room expansion or staffing resources based on internal priorities rather than enterprise-wide need.
To address these challenges, multispecialty groups are turning to integrative solutions:
- Unified access centers to route referrals and new-patient requests through a centralized queue with enterprise rules. This ensures that high-priority new patients — especially from external sources — aren’t deprioritized in favor of easier-to-schedule established visits.
- Standardized scheduling templates and visit types across specialties using uniform time increments (e.g., 10-minute blocks) and shared visit taxonomies. This enables better forecasting, cross-specialty comparisons, and more flexible staffing.
- Data-driven ROI modeling to inform capital investments — such as expanding GI or cardiology access — by quantifying how reducing bottlenecks in high-margin specialties can generate system-wide value.
When properly aligned, these approaches help multispecialty groups move from a fragmented model to one that manages access across the full continuum of care.
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