When Getting an Appointment Becomes Part of the Healthcare Problem
For many Americans, accessing healthcare increasingly begins with a wait.
AMN Healthcare’s 2025 survey found that the average time required to schedule a physician appointment across 15 major metropolitan areas had reached 31 days—up from 26 days in 2022 and 21 days in 2004. That represents a 19% increase in just three years and a 48% increase since the survey began.
At the same time, the American Hospital Association cites projections of a U.S. physician shortage of as many as 86,000 physicians by 2036.
Healthcare organizations therefore face an important question:
How do we give more patients access to care when simply adding more clinicians and facilities may not be realistic?
Virtual care can be part of the answer.
Access Does Not Always Require Another Building
Traditional healthcare generally requires three things to come together at the same time:
- The patient
- The healthcare provider
- A physical healthcare location
Technology can change that equation.
For care that is clinically appropriate for virtual delivery, patients and providers no longer necessarily need to be in the same place.
Follow-up visits, chronic-care interactions, medication discussions, patient education, selected behavioral-health encounters, review of patient-generated health information, and many other interactions may be performed remotely when the healthcare provider determines virtual care is appropriate.
That does not eliminate the need for in-person medicine.
It allows scarce physical healthcare resources to be used where they are most needed.
Virtual Care Should Be More Than a Video Call
Simply replacing an office conversation with a video conversation does not fully address the access problem.
The bigger opportunity is maintaining a connection with patients between visits.
TotalCare by Hawkeye MedTech is designed as an integrated virtual-care platform that can combine:
- Virtual visits
- Remote patient monitoring
- Appointment scheduling
- Patient reminders
- Medication information
- Digital forms and questionnaires
- Caregiver participation
- Chronic-care support
- Ongoing patient engagement
A patient who can report blood pressure or glucose readings remotely, complete a questionnaire before an appointment, receive reminders, and meet virtually with a clinician when appropriate may require fewer unnecessary trips simply to exchange information.
Extending the Capacity of the Healthcare Workforce
Telehealth does not create more physicians.
What it can do is help healthcare organizations use existing clinical resources differently.
Providers may be able to reach patients across a wider geography, perform appropriate follow-up remotely, monitor selected health information between encounters, and connect with patients who otherwise might postpone care because of transportation, mobility, scheduling, or distance.
Telehealth has already become part of mainstream healthcare delivery. The AHA reported that 86.9% of hospitals offered telehealth services in 2022, compared with 72.6% in 2018.
The question is therefore shifting from:
“Should healthcare use telehealth?”
to:
“How should healthcare integrate virtual and in-person care most effectively?”
From Episodic Care to Connected Care
A 31-day wait is not solved by technology alone.
But a connected-care model can create additional pathways between the patient and the healthcare system.
Instead of every interaction depending on another office appointment, healthcare organizations can determine which parts of the patient’s journey can occur virtually, which health information can be monitored remotely, and which encounters truly require physical presence.
That can help make care more accessible while preserving in-person resources for the patients who need them most.
TotalCare: Connecting Care Beyond the Clinic
TotalCare helps healthcare organizations connect patients, clinicians, caregivers, and communities through virtual care, remote patient monitoring, chronic-care support, and patient engagement.
