When preventive care becomes upselling in medicine

For many years, I’ve held a brief huddle with my team every morning to make sure we are ready for the day: Anybody with complex problems coming in today? Anybody who’s been in the ER? How is Mrs. Jones’s husband over at the nursing home, is she worried about his condition? Where can we squeeze in more add-on’s? Now other people have tried to hijack the word “huddle” for a completely different purpose. They want to use it to slow us down instead of helping get us get through the avalanche of issues we’re already expecting. In my other office, they call it pre-visit planning. It’s not about having the MRI result available or the recent ER note, but more about who is behind on some aspect of their health maintenance and (unsuspectingly) expecting just a sore throat visit, but consistently avoiding their diabetes followup visits? My veterinarian colleagues handle this differently. They just send a postcard at random times, or hand me a paper, usually part of my exit statement, as I recall, that says which critter is due for what. But in that case, I’m already safely close to the door, and nobody is expecting me to act on it in that instant. Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Physician OB/GYN Primary Care Source Type: blogs