The average wait time to see a neurologist following an initial referral was just over a month for older adults, with nearly 1 in 5 patients waiting more than 3 months, a cross-sectional analysis of Medicare data showed.
Wait times were not affected by the number of available neurologists. However, those with multiple sclerosis (MS), epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease (PD), dementia, and sleep disorders had the longest wait times.
“In general, early referral to specialists has been shown to improve outcomes and increase patient satisfaction,” said study author Chun Chieh Lin, PhD, MBA, of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, in a press release. “Our findings underscore the need to develop new strategies to help people with neurological conditions see neurologists faster.”
The findings were published online on January 8 in Neurology.
No National Benchmark for Wait Times
For this study, researchers analyzed a large sample of fee-for-service Medicare data from 2018 to 2019. Researchers identified patients with a year or less between their last referring physician visit and a new neurologist visit.
Exclusion criteria included enrollment in health maintenance organization plans without continuous enrollment in Medicare Part A and Part B for 2 years before the index neurologist visit, missing patient data, no physician referral at all, or referral by a different neurologist.
In addition to assessing wait times,