What is response time?
The time between the patient asking for someone on the team and someone on the team replying. Automatic messages do not count.
Why is the average misleading?
With nine replies in 10 minutes and one in 3 days, the average goes past 7 hours, and no conversation took 7 hours. The median, the time of the middle conversation, stays at 10 minutes and describes what most people experienced.
The 3-day conversation doesn't disappear: it shows up separately, as the case that needs attention.
What about a request that hasn't been answered yet?
It stays out of the median, because it has no time yet, and it is counted separately. A clinic with a good median and five conversations waiting has a problem the median alone doesn't show.