What do primary care doctors need? More time.

While in training, we were told that we were not efficient if we couldn’t see 20 or more patients and complete our notes for billing. We were told that primary care offices were asking our residency program for our efficacy data before consideration of hire. This was the line drawn in the sand by our new health care system. We would either rise to the occasion or be harassed by the administration and coding department because we were not producing. These efforts were done in the name of efficiency for us to be “better doctors.” Unfortunately, this blind faith in productivity was squeezing every ounce of humanity out of what primary care is supposed to be about. Years later, I had case demonstrating why time is so important in primary care. My team and I were seeing a patient for an initial visit. This person had an elevated blood pressure and was not very fond of medications. She didn’t know what high blood pressure was and what it could do. After providing some education, I stopped the doctor talk. I said we would like to get to know you better as a person, not as a patient, tell us about yourself. For 40 minutes, she spilled a life story of female independence, raising two children by her self, one with epilepsy, the other who struggles with alcoholism. I just listened, honoring her with the time to be heard. The context of stress was important not just for understanding the person in front of me, but what the real contributor to her high blood pressure likely was. ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Physician Primary Care Source Type: blogs