Here's how many minutes the average doctor actually spends with each patient

Some doctors' visits seem to last hours, but have you ever wondered how much of that time you actually spend talking with your physician?

The online medical resource Medscape, which is owned by WebMD, recently released its 2016 Physician Compensation Report, which features data from more than 19,200 doctors in 26 specialties. All the data is self-reported and based on information collected for Medscape's yearly survey. 

Part of the report includes information on how many minutes doctors say they spend with each patient, with 13-16 minutes being the most commonly-reported estimate. Take a look:

Business Insider / Dragan Radovanovic

While it can seem like the time you actually spend with your doctor is getting slimmer and slimmer every year, the results of this year's survey — with 13-16 minutes being the most-commonly reported figure — were pretty consistent with previous annual surveys since 2011.

The data was further broken down by gender. Previous Medscape studies have suggested that female doctors spend more time per patient, on average, than their male counterparts, and this study shows the same pattern, with 49% of female physicians and 41% of male physicians spending 17 or more minutes with each patient. As the report notes, though, this is also influenced by the fact that the specialties themselves are gendered, with very few female physicians working in the fields of critical and emergency care, which tend to have the shortest doctor's visits.

 

Read more about the report here>>

NOW WATCH: The doctor who inspired the movie 'Concussion' is convinced OJ Simpson has a brain disease