Which metric directly measures appointment wait times in the patient experience workflow?

• A. Appointment wait times
• B. Net collection rate
• C. No-show rate
• D. Surgical conversion rate

Answer: (A)

Timeliness in the patient access flow is measured by tracking how long patients actually wait before their visit starts. This metric directly captures the delay between when a patient is ready for care (arrival or scheduled start) and when the clinician begins the appointment, reflecting the patient’s experience of wait time. It can be calculated as the start-of-visit time minus the scheduled or arrival time, then averaged over many visits to show typical wait. This is distinct from other metrics: net collection rate looks at how much revenue is collected, no-show rate counts patients who don’t attend, and surgical conversion rate measures how often visits lead to surgery. So the appointment wait times metric is the direct measure of wait times in the patient experience workflow.