News in brief - Dec. 26, 2011

Waiting room time for patients varies by region, specialty - R.I. Blues plan considers EMR program a success

Waiting room time for patients varies by region, specialty

Patients waited an average of 21 minutes in medical practices' reception areas for their appointments, but this varied by location and specialty, according to a statement issued Dec. 6 by the physician rating website Vitals.

The company maintains a database of 700,000 physicians, with approximately 41% of them having reports from patients about how long they waited.

Wisconsin had the shortest average wait time at 15.3 minutes, and Mississippi had the longest at 25.1 minutes. When the data were analyzed by region, the Midwest had the shortest wait time at 18.9 minutes, and the Southeast had patients sitting about 23.5 minutes.

Patients also tended to wait less for primary than specialty care. The average reported wait time for a primary care physician was 15.8 minutes, but the wait time for specialists was 22.2 minutes.

R.I. Blues plan considers EMR program a success

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island announced that its three-year, electronic medical record pilot program produced lower costs and improved health results.

For the program, which the Rhode Island Blues plan says became the foundation of its patient-centered medical home model, 79 primary care physicians received funding to purchase an EMR and receive monthly stipends during the first two years of the program to pay for time spent implementing and learning the new system. All of the participating physicians had a successful implementation.

Three years later, monthly health care costs for plan members receiving care at the pilot sites averaged between 17% and 33% lower than members receiving care at nonparticipating sites. There also was a 44% median rate of improvement in family and children's health, 35% in women's health and 25% in internal medicine.

Participating physicians say the EMR helped them keep better track of their patients' conditions and helped them better track and measure their own performance through data analyses.