If you have recently surveyed your patients (a practice I highly recommend), it’s likely that the three key issues I’ve highlighted below have shown up in your results.
How are you treating these common ailments at your clinic?
#1) The Ailment: You Make it Too Hard to Schedule Appointments
In Experian Health’s 2026 State of Patient Access survey, timely access to care remained the top patient challenge for the fourth consecutive year. The survey of more than 1,000 patients and 200 healthcare decision-makers found that the biggest factor behind patients’ perceptions of access is whether they can see their practitioner quickly. Providers that have invested in digital, mobile, and self-service scheduling report better results.
Why is scheduling so hard for your patients who call into your office? Probably because your office staff is busy greeting and checking in new arrivals, answering urgent patient calls, and tending to the normal, often urgent needs that arise in a patient-centric office setting.
The Cure:
It might be time to take a long, hard look at the bandwidth of your current front office staff. Can you afford to dedicate sufficient staff to only answering appointment scheduling calls? Do you have people on staff who are highly skilled and capable of representing your practice to both new and existing patients? If you’re answering no, you can hire, train, and supervise a team who can handle this for you. If those steps sound unrealistic, you’re not alone. Increasingly, medical and dental practices are turning to outsourcing partners to handle appointment setting. Your contact center requires a team of highly trained appointment schedulers who make sure everything is set up correctly, professionally, and efficiently.
#2) The Ailment: Your Online Reviews Don’t Match Their Personal Referral
Today, just about everybody – everybody – who gets a referral to a new doctor is going to hop online to check that doctor out. And according to rater8’s 2026 Patient Choice Report, 75% of patients won’t book with a provider rated below 4.0 stars, while 55% have avoided or canceled an appointment because of online reviews. Even more strikingly, 66% say that seeing a provider’s response to online reviews directly influences their trust in that provider. So when these patients search you online, they’re seeking reassurance that you are competent, caring, and reliable. When they find a handful of scathing reviews – and nothing positive to counterbalance them – they are likely to look elsewhere.
The Cure:
Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away (but it may have that effect on your patients). Even long-standing patients will occasionally check out your ratings. When they do, they need to see that your online reputation matches their needs. In other words, show awareness, care, and responsiveness when patients post reviews. When someone compliments anyone or anything in your practice – no matter how big or small the comment – respond promptly and graciously. Conversely, if you find a bad review, do the same. While the comment may seem unfair, incomplete or completely false, your response needs to showcase your professionalism and care and again, responsiveness. Invite negative commenters to contact your office directly so you can resolve misunderstandings. If your practice has gone through a bad patch in the past and you’re facing an overwhelmingly large amount of negative online feedback, you may need to hire a professional reputation management service.
#3) The Ailment: You Make Them Wait, and Wait, and Wait
Wait times remain a significant patient-access problem. In a July 2026 MGMA poll, 28% of medical groups reported that new-patient appointment wait times were longer than they were during the same period in 2025, while 46% said they had stayed the same. Think about it. When patients call your front desk for an appointment, chances are they’ll be placed on hold at least once while your hard working staff tend to someone else who is either already on hold, calling in, or standing in front of them, waiting for help. Once patients arrive for their appointment, they’re likely to wait well past their scheduled time before seeing you. Worse: afterward, many patients will face an even more worrisome wait before receiving test results.
The Cure:
While some of these challenges may remain outside your control, an outsource partner can help you streamline and improve your scheduling process. Phone hold times are reduced dramatically. And automated appointment reminders can help you reduce your no-shows and late shows, keeping all appointments closer to their scheduled start times..