PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Shumer, Gregory
AU  - Chen, Dongru
AU  - Holkeboer, John
AU  - Marshall, Lauren
AU  - Kinney, Devon
AU  - Sen, Ananda
AU  - Klinkman, Michael
AU  - Gold, Katherine J.
TI  - Convenience or Continuity: When Are Patients Willing to Wait to See Their Own Doctor?
AID  - 10.1370/afm.240299
DP  - 2025 Mar 01
TA  - The Annals of Family Medicine
PG  - 151--157
VI  - 23
IP  - 2
4099  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/23/2/151.short
4100  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/23/2/151.full
SO  - Ann Fam Med2025 Mar 01; 23
AB  - PURPOSE Much of the literature on team-based primary care has focused on physician productivity, workload, and burnout. Less is known about how team-based care influences patient satisfaction and perceptions of the trade-off between continuity and access. This study assessed the preferences of family medicine patients for seeing their primary care physician (PCP) vs other team clinicians based on visit type and wait time.METHODS Our cross-sectional online survey asked patients about their primary care clinics, PCP, portal use, self-reported health, and demographics. For multivariate analysis, we used weighted logistic regression analysis with survey data to calculate maximum likelihood estimates and converted these to odds ratios. We controlled for age and self-reported health as continuous variables and for demographics as categorical variables.RESULTS We surveyed 4,795 adult patients and received responses from 2,516 (52.5%). More than one-half of patients preferred to see only their PCP for an annual checkup (52.6%), follow-up of a chronic condition (54.6%), or follow-up for a mental health condition (56.8%). Similarly, the majority of patients preferred to wait 3 to 4 weeks to see their PCP for issues possibly requiring a sensitive examination (68.2%), a new mental health concern (58.9%), or a new concern about a chronic condition (61.1%).CONCLUSIONS Our findings show that patients value having a PCP and maintaining continuity with their PCP. They also provide insight on when patients would prefer to wait to see their own PCP vs being seen more quickly by another clinician. As health care delivery and scheduling continue to evolve, these findings provide guidance for leaders in primary care.