Getting in to see a specialist can take weeks, especially right now. If you don’t want to wait, there are strategies to get an appointment faster.

With more people seeking medical care after deferring it earlier in the pandemic, wait times for many specialists have increased, say patients, doctors and analysts. And fall is often a busy time as people have met their medical deductible and try to make appointments before year’s end.

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Getting in to see a specialist can take weeks, especially right now. If you don’t want to wait, there are strategies to get an appointment faster.

With more people seeking medical care after deferring it earlier in the pandemic, wait times for many specialists have increased, say patients, doctors and analysts. And fall is often a busy time as people have met their medical deductible and try to make appointments before year’s end.

“You call for an appointment and find out that they are booked for the year,” says Thomas Lee, chief medical officer at Press Ganey, a provider of healthcare performance-improvement services. “It’s the equivalent of sticker shock.”

In 2017, new patients waited an average of four weeks to see specialists in 15 large metro areas, according to the most recent data from Merritt Hawkins, a physician search firm and unit of AMN Healthcare. The company plans to study wait times in 2022, and expects some waits to increase, says Tom Florence, executive vice president at Merritt Hawkins.

This year, recruiting requests for ear nose and throat specialists, gastroenterologists, neurologists, urologists and psychiatrists are on pace to hit record levels at the firm, and Mr. Florence expects the current staffing gaps to increase wait times for patients.

Here’s what doctors and healthcare executives advise if you need a specialist appointment ASAP.

Get your primary care doctor involved

If you’re having little luck navigating the system, ask your family physician to help. Primary care doctors may be willing to do some “back channel communication” to get you seen quicker, says Michael Barnett, assistant professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Your doctor can talk to the specialist’s office to explain why you need an appointment sooner—you may be dealing with extreme pain, for instance, or your physician suspects you have a condition that needs to be addressed quickly. Patients won’t likely be as effective in calling the front desk themselves, because the staff is instructed not to overfill the schedule, Dr. Barnett says. Physicians “will have some built-in wiggle room, usually to accommodate patients or other last-minute things,” he says.

Get on a cancellation list

Doctors’ offices often keep a waitlist to fill last-minute cancellations quickly, but patients need to know to ask, says Lisa Yerian,

chief improvement officer at Cleveland Clinic. Some hospital systems are also deploying new tools to fill canceled appointments more efficiently. At Cleveland Clinic, patients can opt-in to receive texts or emails when cancellations happen and take an earlier slot, she says.
Ask your primary care doctor to do an e-consult with a specialist

Rather than sending the patient to see the specialist, sometimes a primary care doctor can consult with the specialist directly. Large hospital systems increasingly use online messaging platforms that let doctors ask questions of colleagues. Often, specialty physicians reply to questions within a day, says Andrew Wallach, chief medical officer of ambulatory care for NYC Health + Hospitals, which operates the city’s public health system.

Roughly 20% of the patients who have had e-consult questions answered through the system since 2016 no longer required an in-person specialist appointment, he adds.

Escalate your request

If you’re worried about the timing of an appointment, some healthcare systems allow you to formally raise concerns during the scheduling process. At NYC Health + Hospitals, a team within the contact center is trained to escalate requests to clinicians, Dr. Wallach says.

Many smaller practices also work to prioritize requests but do so on a case-by-case basis, Dr. Lee from Press Ganey adds.

Be flexible

Health systems with multiple locations often have offices with more availability, Dr. Yerian says. In some cases, going to a different location can get you an earlier appointment. Whom you see matters, too: Patients willing to meet with nurse practitioners or physician assistants rather than their actual doctor can often be seen sooner.

“Consider different locations and consider other members of the care team,” she says.

Opt for an online visit

You can often do an initial visit virtually, and telehealth visits often have greater availability than in-person ones, says Dr. Lee, who is also a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. A quick virtual visit can help facilitate quicker treatment and additional testing sooner than waiting for an in-person slot.

“If someone is not in pain, they usually just need information or reassurance, and that can usually be handled in something other than face-to-face contact,” he says.

Try urgent care

In some cases, urgent care centers associated with larger hospital systems can give the referral and have a network of specialists to recommend, Dr. Yerian says. Cleveland Clinic’s urgent care locations regularly facilitate patient referrals to specialists. “They are staffed by ER physicians and can refer you to a doctor,” she says.

Ask about group appointments

Some hospital systems offer shared medical appointments for ongoing conditions including asthma, diabetes and hypertension. At Cleveland Clinic, these appointments are less rushed and the 10 to 15-person group spends roughly 90 minutes with a provider, Dr. Yerian says. When calling to make the initial appointment, avoid Monday mornings or the days after a holiday, which are often the busiest times, she adds.

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Write to Alina Dizik at alina.dizik@wsj.com