| Welcome To 3 Minute Healthcare Imagine a typical day in your doctor’s life. An early morning check shows 36 patients on today’s schedule. Remembering the 6:00 family obligation your doctor senses this may be a problem. With luck, maybe a few patients won’t show up. If it’s a typical day, half a dozen more may call in to be seen. Already, it’s looking like the average 15 minutes appointment will need to shrink to 10 minutes. Thankfully it’s not Monday when more patients might be calling in. The anticipated 15 minute appointment sounds reasonable to patients. Really, how much time does it take for a doctor to prescribe that magic pill? Unknown to most is the time needed to review their medical records before stepping into the exam room, time to consider and explain alternatives/consequences time, time to document and more - all needing to fit into the now inevitably shortened appointment. It’s the “more” part that’s invisible to patients wondering why the doctor seemed to have spent less than three minutes face to face before saying something vaguely like “let’s stay with …and , keep an eye on … and see what this looks like next month.” Hesitantly agreeing, most take the new prescription and head for the checkout counter. On the way a queasy feeling develops that maybe you didn’t explain it well or maybe he didn’t hear what you said. Oh well, next month you plan to explain it better. Patients with a simple cold are glad to be quickly examined, reassured, and on their way in ten minutes. Unfortunately most patients don’t present a single problem. For patients with multiple issues, less than 20 minutes is guaranteed to shortchange them and frustrate the doctor. It’s fair to wonder, did my doctor really prescribe the best medicine or just the one that’s easy to write for without having to spend uncompensated time on the telephone arguing with the insurance company? As for getting the best referral, forget about it. An overscheduled doctor will skip the call to explain medical necessity and ask his staff to get you in with anyone available. Granted your doctor knows quite a bit about who he would trust his family to. The problem is that the best doctors are busy and getting an appointment with them will be in six months or never without your doctor as an advocate. Many other demands eat into the precious 15 minutes. Several times a day the pharmacy may call for information needed to address formulary changes. Incomplete reports from specialist will need clarifying. The outside distractions from Government, insurance companies, regulatory agencies, suppliers, staff issues, building maintenance, etc. never end. The typical fifteen minute appointment doesn’t take into account that the average patient is older, has more complex problems, and takes more medications. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five people take three or more medications. Often some or all have been prescribed by other doctors with little documentation about why. To complicate matters, taking more time to analyze the patient’s situation adds to the time needed to create documentation to support insurance charges. Tell Me More about Concierge Physicians in Huntsville, Alabama. Exit |