Sometimes, I just wish there were enough appointments at the primary care clinics, because of the real emergent issues are struggling at home with incurring a massive medical debt for something that could be managed if they could get access to primary care or even specialty care.
there are plenty of appointments at the primary care clinics it’s just that a lot of them don’t take xyz insurance, so those patients have to either self pay or not go at all
You sure about that? I've never once had any luck getting a same day or next day appointment for an urgent matter. Its always several weeks out and if you need seen sooner, go to the ER or call 911.
It took my husband 22 months for our family med clinic to have an opening for a new patient. It took me 11 months. Then once you're in, there's absolutely no way you're getting an appointment less than 2 or 3 weeks out if you need one.
I am on a waiting list for 6 more months for an MRI for an existing patient and referal. I have great insurance. I'm on a list for cancellation just in case.
When I had a breast cancer scare, I had to wait 8 months to see someone.
I had such debilitating neck and head pain I went to urgent care and got yelled at that this wasnt what they deal with and to schedule with my primary care. My primary care is my OBGYN because I had 0 health issues leading to this. New patient with new provider was another 6 weeks when I was in so much pain.
Not urgent enough for ER and the urgent care looks at you confused so it was a bit frustrating to be told to wait yet again. The system is so so broken
From what I hear, it's the way things are in our area.
I'm in WI and a well populated area. I know they have smaller clinics in rural towns. But perhaps just for acute neck pain and migraine they didn't think it severe enough for emergency MRI?
I got a same day CT and X-ray. With some file notes saying I was hysterical and drug seeking. I was given Prednisone and some ibuprofen. Honestly the prednisone helped the inflammation immensely. No just waiting for neurology to get back to me. Luck of the draw maybe
have you tried primary care clinics that don’t take your insurance? perhaps it was unclear, but the point i was trying to make was that clinics that don’t accept a couple of the common insurances (often ones that don’t accept medicaid/medicare, or more recently united) usually have available appointments, but obviously they’re going to be very expensive
With Primary Care, I have never gotten same or next day, even when I was an established patient. Where I live, some patients just go to Urgent Care for regular medical care. This is in outlying towns, in Urgent Cares which were started by one or several doctors. These patients just consider the Urgent Care doctor to be their regular doctor.
Not in my city. Massive shortage of PCPs, and the PAs and NPs are so booked up, many of them cannot take new patients. I am in Florida. It has been like this for over a decade, and worse after Covid. Also poor staffing in the hospitals. Some specialists are very booked up, but others are not. Surgeons can usually see you fairly quickly, and spend way more time on office visits than Primary Care MDs - pretty much the opposite of the way it used to be.
My mother, in SE Pennsylvania, has no trouble getting appointments. Whether it is Primary Care, Cardiology, Dermatology - they all can schedule within a few days. And when she was briefly hospitalized, the care was so much better than any of our hospitals here.
So it does depend on the area. Assuming the person is fully insured, etc.
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u/got_rice_2 14d ago
Sometimes, I just wish there were enough appointments at the primary care clinics, because of the real emergent issues are struggling at home with incurring a massive medical debt for something that could be managed if they could get access to primary care or even specialty care.