Improving wait times and patient satisfaction in primary care.

A strong and inverse relationship between patient satisfaction and wait times in ambulatory care settings has been demonstrated. Despite its relevance to key medical practice outcomes, timeliness of care in primary care settings has not been widely studied. The goal of the quality improvement project described here was to increase patient satisfaction by minimizing wait times using the Dartmouth Microsystem Improvement Curriculum (DMIC) framework and the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) improvement process.