The good news is that most patients, 60 percent in fact, felt appropriately “connected” to their primary care physician.
However, that leaves a significant 40 percent who were not.
According to a recent study, patients who were not connected were less likely to received recommended preventive care and other screening tests.
Which all comes as no surprise. Not only is it increasingly difficult to find a new primary care doctor in the first place, but those who accept new patients are part of larger groups, work part time, or are mid-level providers who work in concert with physicians.
Furthermore, with the proliferation of retail clinics and the worsening crowding in emergency departments, more patients are obtaining primary care from multiple providers.
Which means that as we move forward, it is less likely that patients can identify with a single person they can call their primary care provider.
And, if this study is to be believed, that means that more preventive care measures will fall by the wayside.
