I’ve written in the past that the routine physical exam does not have data to back up its efficacy.
Family physician Ben Brewer (via the WSJ Health Blog) has a different take, saying that it provides time to build relationships, which can have “a beneficial impact on health quality, costs and outcomes that goes way beyond disease detection and health screening.”
There are some variables that cannot be measured in a study, and perhaps most importantly, “an annual examination allows time to build a physician-patient relationship in a way that a 10- or 15-minute office visit doesn’t.”
Indeed, I use the annual physical to re-connect with patients, and to consolidate the plethora of screening modalities that are currently recommended. Without this dedicated time, it’s easy for routine guidance to slip through the cracks of short, acute care visits.
Related posts:
- The annual physical
- The annual physical
- The annual physical
- "Why listen when you can order a scan?"
- A doctor who advocates no screening tests
- How the physical exam can affect the doctor-patient relationship
- Are doctors finding the physical exam useless and obsolete?
{ 4 comments }
Doctors are much too pressed for time to ‘develop a relationship’ with patient/customers, although how the attempt would be coded might be interesting.
Chuck Brooks
FutureWare SCG
$300 to reconnect-no thanks. Patient/relationship? You brush me off the rest of the year and then I am supposed to pay for relationship building?
There is a nurse practitioner in my area that charges $60 for a full physical-which is cheaper than my copay to reconnect with my absent doctor.
Anon 2:02
You have some seriously crappy insurance if your preventative visit co-pay is greater than $60. Many plans allow the annual physical for free-no deductible, no copay, no nada.
“You have some seriously crappy insurance if your preventative visit co-pay is greater than $60.”
I have great insurance. I pay 20% and don’t need any referrals to see specialists and I top out at $1500. Today I saw my PT-no referral, no hassles with a PCP, no waiting in pain-priceless.
The NP price includes the lab fees for a PAP and she does the blood draw herself. The MD would nickel and dime for every little thing.
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