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Clinic Practices: Joining the Fray
Have you been following the unholy fracas taking place over at Rod Moser's WebMD blog All Ears? Scroll down to the posting dated January 20. He wrote a candid and contentious tome regarding clinic booking practices and the many reasons why patients are left waiting.
I encourage you to visit and add your two cents.
The response was overwhelming!
= Overwhelmingly hostile
= Overwhelmingly sarcastic
= Overwhelmingly judgmental
= Overwhelmingly passionate
Everybody hates to wait. There, I've said it!
Everybody wants more time with their provider. There, I've said it again!
It makes no difference how busy or how (in)efficient my individual clinic may be. I was surprised that so many respondents blamed the waiting on GREED. If that were the case only private practice clinics would have problems with overbooking. University-based clinics, institutional, military, and missionary charitable health care facilities would hum along. Ha! Ha! Ha! In Honduras they wait for DAYS in order to be seen by the visiting eye doctors and no money changes hands.
About time management. Is it possible that all clinic administrators are idiots? They usually prepare the schedules. Many have MBA degrees. The core struggle is the provider's inability to dehumanize the practice of medicine: listening, thinking, educating, comforting, balancing so many conflicting priorities while trying to compress 16 hours of compassion into 8 hours of clinic.
For example, a walk-in patient with a new corneal ulcer (serious threat to eye!) will unmercifully consume at least one hour of my clinic. One hour, POOF! What happens to the four waiting patients?
In 25 years' practice the following gesture has never failed me. When things get backed-up I walk into the waiting room and ask for everybody's attention. Without violating HIPAA I inform the group that the schedule has been sabotaged. I give my promise that patients who are willing to wait will receive the same care and attention. Those who cannot wait are invited to rebook. My final word is that I will not leave the clinic until every patient is seen and satisfied. Usually there is some soft laughter and a little applause. It really decompresses things.
Congratulations to Rod Moser for giving all of us a change to express our perceptions and our attitudes about outpatient health care delivery. Now, Rod, when are you going to tackle serious issues like hospital food?
I encourage you to visit and add your two cents.
The response was overwhelming!
= Overwhelmingly hostile
= Overwhelmingly sarcastic
= Overwhelmingly judgmental
= Overwhelmingly passionate
Everybody hates to wait. There, I've said it!
Everybody wants more time with their provider. There, I've said it again!
It makes no difference how busy or how (in)efficient my individual clinic may be. I was surprised that so many respondents blamed the waiting on GREED. If that were the case only private practice clinics would have problems with overbooking. University-based clinics, institutional, military, and missionary charitable health care facilities would hum along. Ha! Ha! Ha! In Honduras they wait for DAYS in order to be seen by the visiting eye doctors and no money changes hands.
About time management. Is it possible that all clinic administrators are idiots? They usually prepare the schedules. Many have MBA degrees. The core struggle is the provider's inability to dehumanize the practice of medicine: listening, thinking, educating, comforting, balancing so many conflicting priorities while trying to compress 16 hours of compassion into 8 hours of clinic.
For example, a walk-in patient with a new corneal ulcer (serious threat to eye!) will unmercifully consume at least one hour of my clinic. One hour, POOF! What happens to the four waiting patients?
In 25 years' practice the following gesture has never failed me. When things get backed-up I walk into the waiting room and ask for everybody's attention. Without violating HIPAA I inform the group that the schedule has been sabotaged. I give my promise that patients who are willing to wait will receive the same care and attention. Those who cannot wait are invited to rebook. My final word is that I will not leave the clinic until every patient is seen and satisfied. Usually there is some soft laughter and a little applause. It really decompresses things.
Congratulations to Rod Moser for giving all of us a change to express our perceptions and our attitudes about outpatient health care delivery. Now, Rod, when are you going to tackle serious issues like hospital food?
