The NYTimes has a very interesting article today detailing a push by a small subset of doctors toward more personalized medical care. Instead of seeing 40-50 patients a day (meaning they probably have a database of well over 20,000 patients total) these doctors only care for about 1,500 patients total, allowing them to give personalized medical care and spend a larger (almost an hour) amount of time with each patient.
The attention to each patient really seems to be paying off (and saving costs) for both the doctor and the patients. Personally, I feel like this method of caring for patients is the ideal situation. My personal modification would be to place these caring doctors in larger practices that can pool resources and further reduce administrative costs. Furthermore, these centers for excellent care could cover larger populations and become a mechanism for reforming health care from the bottom up.
Check out the article here: NYTimes Article. I’m interested in hearing what everyone else thinks!
0 Responses to “What if Doctors had More Time?”