The Full Waiting Room

Abstract

To the Editor:— As long as the full waiting room is the criterion by which the public judges the competence of a physician, some waiting rooms will be overcrowded, while others will remain partially empty, no matter how much the number of doctors is increased. As long as there is the tendency to travel from smaller centers to centers of greater population, people will consider it their prerogative to seek service, medical as well as otherwise, in those larger centers, even though the same service is available to them in their own communities. For distance lends enchantment, and familiarity breeds contempt. To prevent this travel would mean some sort of regimentation, so abhorrent to the American tradition. Peak loads occur in every type of service. To prevent delay in obtaining service (and people equate speed of service with competence) would mean the employment of extra personnel, who would be retained