Primary Care Scores a 45 Out of 100. The Data Behind the Dissatisfaction.

Industry News by DPC Insider
#primary care#patient satisfaction#wait times#access#PartnerMD#concierge medicine#DPC value proposition
Sources: Patients Want More Time and Better Access. PartnerMD's 2026 State of Primary Care Report Finds Primary Care Isn't Delivering. · PartnerMD: Why Is It So Hard to Get a Doctor's Appointment? · The 1% Threshold: Why 2026 is the Tipping Point for Direct Primary Care · 2026 Primary Care Scorecard Shows Continued Underinvestment, Workforce Strain

Forty-five out of a hundred. That’s the average score Americans gave their primary care experience in a new report from PartnerMD, a concierge medicine network that surveyed more than 500 patients between July and September 2025. If primary care were a class, it would be failing.

The numbers aren’t surprising to anyone who’s sat in a waiting room lately. But seeing them quantified across access, time, prevention, and coordination paints a picture that’s hard to look away from.

The Numbers That Matter

PartnerMD’s 2026 State of Primary Care Report graded the patient experience across four categories: access and availability, relationship and time with the physician, prevention and long-term care, and coordination and support. None of them scored well.

Access: 62% of respondents said they wait at least a week to see their doctor. Another 62% reported they can’t reach their doctor’s office after hours at all.

Time: 68% of patients said they feel rushed during appointments at least some of the time. When the average primary care visit runs 7 to 10 minutes, that tracks.

Prevention: 59% said their doctor offers no wellness resources. Only 12% frequently discuss long-term health goals with their physician.

The bottom line: 80% of respondents said they worry about important health issues slipping through the cracks. And the Net Promoter Score, a standard measure of whether someone would recommend their doctor, came in at negative 52. That’s not just low. In most industries, a score below zero means you have a serious problem.

What’s Driving the Gap

Dr. Jim Mumper, PartnerMD’s Chief Medical Officer, framed it as a structural issue rather than a physician problem. “Limited access, constrained time, gaps in wellness resources, and infrequent goal-setting make it difficult for primary care to fulfill its full potential,” he said.

That distinction matters. The doctors aren’t failing. The system is. A physician managing a panel of 2,500 patients in a fee-for-service model doesn’t have 30 minutes for a wellness conversation. They have barely enough time to address the chief complaint before the next patient walks in. The Milbank Memorial Fund’s 2026 Primary Care Scorecard reinforced this, documenting continued underinvestment and workforce strain across the U.S. primary care system.

The structural constraints create the exact symptoms this report measured: long waits, short visits, no after-hours access, and patients left wondering if something important got missed.

The DPC Contrast

You don’t have to squint to see where Direct Primary Care fits into this picture. Every metric where traditional primary care scored poorly is a metric DPC was designed around.

Wait times: Most DPC practices offer same-day or next-day appointments. When your panel is 400 to 800 patients instead of 2,500, you have capacity for the people who need you today.

Visit length: DPC visits typically run 30 to 60 minutes. That’s not a luxury. It’s what happens when you remove the insurance billing layer and stop trying to see 25 patients a day.

After-hours access: Direct communication with your doctor, through text, phone, or a patient portal, is standard in most DPC practices. The 62% of patients who can’t reach their doctor after hours aren’t going to find that problem in a DPC membership.

Prevention and wellness: When you’re not racing through 15-minute slots, you actually have time to talk about long-term health goals. DPC practices routinely offer extended physicals, wellness planning, and proactive screening that traditional practices simply can’t fit into their schedules.

None of this makes DPC “better.” It makes it different. And reports like PartnerMD’s help explain why the difference is resonating. DPC practices now serve roughly 1% of the American population, with over 7,200 employers offering DPC benefits.

A Note About the Source

It’s worth acknowledging that PartnerMD is a concierge medicine company. They have a business reason to highlight these gaps. They sell the alternative. That doesn’t make the data wrong, but it’s context you should have. The survey methodology, over 500 respondents surveyed across two months, is reasonable. And the findings align with what the Milbank scorecard and other independent research have documented for years.

The patient dissatisfaction they measured is real. The debate is about what to do about it.

What This Means

If you’re a physician still in fee-for-service, this report puts a number on what you already feel every day. Your patients aren’t unhappy with you. They’re unhappy with a system that gives you 10 minutes, a full waiting room, and no path to the kind of care you were trained to deliver.

If you’re considering DPC, data like this is useful when you’re explaining the model to a spouse, a banker, or yourself at 2 a.m. The traditional system isn’t just hard on doctors. Patients are giving it a 45 out of 100. That’s the gap you’d be stepping into.

If you’re already practicing DPC, this is validation. But it’s also a reminder. The access, time, and prevention numbers your patients rave about aren’t just nice features. They’re the specific things the rest of primary care is failing at. That’s your value proposition, backed up by data from a competitor that surveyed the patients you’re trying to reach.