Newsflash: PCPs juggle multiple problems during office visits

More studies of the obvious:

“We documented that on average there are six topics that were discussed, and there is not a lot of time allocated to these topics,” said lead study author Ming Tai-Seale, Ph.D.
During the doctor-patient interactions, the topic that received the most talk time was typically discussed for about five minutes. The remaining issues typically received about a minute of discussion each, found the study in the latest online issue of the journal Health Services Research.

Comments

Conciergedoc
I feel like a record player that keeps looping around.
Point 1) People are getting older, and living longer with more chronic diseases.
Point 2) Current practice financials are built around building more patient volumes. (low price x high volume = Walmart medicine)
Oil and Water.
By adding a premium to physicians’ reimbursements, either through PfP measures or retainers fees like in concierge medicine, physicians can financially afford to spend more time with patients.
Question people always bring up with this concept is, can patients afford this? Well I argue that the answer is yes, most can (not everyone but most). Add in tax deductible solutions and even add retainers fees to HSA deductibles, even more can.
~ConciergeDoc
jerry
When I did primary care in the military, retirees would wait months for their 15 minute appointment. They would come in with their written list:
1. toe fungus
2. refill htn meds
3. knee pain
4. back pain
5. being “gassy”
6. cholesterol check
7. “sinus”
Only when after they had run over 15 minutes and were walking out the door would they say “By the way doc, what do you think about the terrible chest pain and SOB I get when I walk up a hill”
I couldn’t wait to get out of the military — not because I didn’t like the military — but because I couldn’t wait to get out of primary care and the socialized medical system.
Anonymous
Unless the current trends reverse, we will eventually reach a point where no one can practice primary care unless they are somehow subsidized.
At that point, there won’t be enough PCPs to keep up with demand and quality will drop to abysmal levels and the remaining few try to see too many patients.
Society will have to decide if the concept of primary care medicine is worthwhile or not. It seems to have decided that it isn’t worth paying for.
Anonymous
So why not stop incessantly whining about it and do something different?
DJS
I’ve done both. I’ll keep up the whining but I quit after 17 years of Family Practice. This last month I built a garage for a neighbor. Framing is Fun. But that’s just my solution for me. The real issue has to do with the direction we are headed.No one in health care has much of a solution to offer…And I got the distinct impression my services(although, in my opinion excellent, but what standard is there?) are not valued. See a midlevel.
Anonymous
“So why not stop incessantly whining about it and do something different?”
Many are. Some friends I know that were in primary care have left in the last few years. Two of them to fellowships, one to real estate, one to consulting, one to administration, one to financial planning, and one becoming a cop.
Medical students can’t run from it fast enough (at least the smart ones)

Newsflash: PCPs juggle multiple problems during office visits

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