(HealthDay Information) — After being referred by their doctor, Medicare sufferers wait a median of 34 days to see a neurologist, based on examine printed on-line Jan. 8 in Neurology.
Chun Chieh Lin, PhD, from Ohio State College in Columbus, and colleagues performed a cross-sectional examine utilizing a 2018 to 2019 Medicare pattern of sufferers with a brand new go to to a neurologist. The first consequence was wait time between the final go to with a referring doctor and the primary go to with a neurologist. A complete of 163,313 Medicare beneficiaries who had a brand new affected person go to with a neurologist in 2018 to 2019 after being referred by their doctor have been recognized.
The researchers discovered that the median wait time to the index neurologist go to was 34 days; 18% of sufferers waited greater than 90 days. In contrast with sufferers with again ache, these with a number of sclerosis (MS), epilepsy and Parkinson’s illness (PD) needed to wait a median of 29.4, 10.4 and 9.3 days longer, respectively. No vital variations have been seen in wait occasions throughout race/ethnicity and intercourse. No vital variations have been seen in wait occasions throughout areas with various ranges of neurologist availability. The wait time was prolonged by a median of 11 days when sufferers visited a neurologist positioned exterior of their residential or referring doctor’s hospital referral area.
“Sufferers with MS, epilepsy and PD needed to wait longer to see neurologists regardless of requiring difficult care greatest offered by neurologists,” the authors write. “We’d like modern approaches to enhance well timed entry to neurologists.”
A number of authors disclosed ties to the medical gadget trade.
Summary/Full Textual content (subscription or fee could also be required)
