Survey: Average Wait for a Doctor Appointment Over Two Months in Some Cities

Waits Longest in Boston, Shortest in Atlanta

IRVING, Texas, May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Need to see a family physician,
dermatologist or an ob/gyn? Get in line, because it could take months to
schedule an appointment, according to a new survey.

Conducted by Merritt Hawkins & Associates, a national physician search and
consulting firm and an AMN Healthcare company, the survey of 1,162 medical
offices tracks the average time needed to schedule a doctor appointment in 15
large metropolitan areas. The survey reports average doctor appointment wait
times in five different medical specialties: cardiology, dermatology,
obstetrics/gynecology, orthopedic surgery and family practice.

Boston is experiencing the longest average doctor appointment wait times
overall of the 15 metro markets examined in the survey: 70 days to see an
obstetrician/gynecologist, 63 days to see a family physician, 54 days to see a
dermatologist, 40 days to see an orthopedic surgeon, and 21 days to see a
cardiologist. Philadelphia and Los Angeles are next on the list, with average
doctor appointment wait times exceeding 45 days in some specialties, followed
by Houston, Washington, D.C., San Diego, Minneapolis, Dallas, Miami, New York,
Denver, Portland, Seattle, Detroit and Atlanta. Physician appointment wait
times tracked in the survey varied from as little as one day to as long as one
year.

"Due to the doctor shortage, finding an available physician can be challenging
today, even in large urban areas where most doctors practice," notes Mark
Smith, president of Merritt Hawkins & Associates.

Massachusetts is a case in point, according to Smith. In 2006 the state
implemented a healthcare reform plan that mandated coverage for all residents,
effectively insuring hundreds of thousands of previously uninsured patients.
Demand for doctors greatly increased, and even though Massachusetts has more
physicians per population than any other state, patients are encountering
increasing difficulty in scheduling physician appointments, says Smith.
Should access to healthcare be expanded through a national reform plan, Smith
believes accessing physicians would be even more problematic for many patients
nationwide.

The survey also tracks how many medical offices accept Medicaid as a form of
payment. Minneapolis was found to have the highest rate of Medicaid
acceptance at 82 percent, Dallas the lowest at 39 percent. The overall
Medicaid acceptance rate for all metro markets was 55 percent. Many
physicians are not accepting Medicaid because it often pays less than what it
costs physicians to provide care, according to Smith.

"Merely having medical coverage does not always ensure access to a physician,"
Smith observes. "Many doctors simply can no longer afford to see Medicaid
patients."

Complete results of Merritt Hawkins & Associates 2009 Survey of Physician
Appointment Wait Times can be accessed at www.merritthawkins.com.

About Merritt Hawkins & Associates
Merritt Hawkins & Associates is the largest physician search and consulting
firm in the United States and is an AMN Healthcare company. AMN Healthcare is
the nation's largest healthcare staffing organization and is the largest in
all four of its business lines; travel nurse staffing, locum tenens staffing,
physician permanent placement and allied healthcare professional staffing.

SOURCE Merritt Hawkins & Associates

Phil Miller of Merritt Hawkins & Associates, +1-469-524-1420,
pmiller@mhagroup.com