How long are appointment time slots and how many patients will you typically see in a day?
I worked in primary care for 4 years, worked in med/surg for one year after getting RN. Now I’m going back to primary care because the doctor I used to work for has increased his patient load r/t his specialization in addiction medicine. His patient load is close to 40 patients/day. Appointments are usually 15 minutes, and 30 minute appointments are for physicals, new patients, and time-consuming patients. Not to mention the ongoing messages, calls, Rx refills, etc.
I've been out of primary care for a while now maybe a year. However, when I left we used to see from 20- 28 patients. A provider is required to see a patient every 15 minutes for regular office visits , 20 minutes long are for physical appointments. PRIMARY CARE IS BUSY!
In my office we have 3-4 providers a day. Each one sees about 15-20 patients a day. We have appointment slots for various different appointment types. Usually 10 min for med checks and same day sick appointments and 20 min for physicals.
15 min focused brief, 30 min new pt or Physical, 15 min lab results or other diag test results
Generally 15-20 mins. For physical can be 1/2 hour. Number of patients can range from 12-25 in a day
15 minutes apart and usually 20-25 patients per day
Usually time slots are 30 minutes . We start clinic @8:00am.. so you can see @ 8 pts. In am and we finish @4:30pm so another 7 pts. But that does not include walk-in pts or the never ending phone calls. We also have a resident clinic in the afternoon and with maximum of 4 residents wirh 3 pts each could have 12 pts. But there are always the pts. Who schedule the appointment but never show up. It can get hectic especially if you are the only RN for multiple providers. Staffing these days is pretty bad.
It depends on your knowledge, experience, and the reason for the visit. I suggest new grads schedule patients every 30 minutes. I have practiced for 14 years and follow ups are 15 minutes, new patients are 30 minutes, and PAP is 30 minutes. You can usually change your times depending on the patients. I have some patients that are 30 minutes all the time because they are time consuming. I see 20-22 patients a day.
I work as a nurse in a primary care office and our appointments are scheduled for 10 minutes as default. 20 minutes are used for new patient meet and greets or acute visits that require more exam and tests such as SOB, etc. My office completes the stress tests, EKGs, labs, and vaccines all at the time of the visit once the provider orders them so it is helpful to have a little more time to complete these orders. The appointments are generally back to back and a provider can see on really busy days about 30-40 patients depending on if there are also physical exams scheduled (40 minutes). Depending on the mix of patient appointment complaints/types determines how many patients you will encounter.
