I came across Dr. Kevin Tolliver’s post, “Beware the Limits of Telemedicine,” and found it to gloss over the benefits of telemedicine and the opportunities that increasing telemedicine uptake can afford to the patient and provider. With thi…
Category: primary care
How can we reduce the no-show rate in primary care?
At a quality and patient safety meeting recently, one of the departments was presenting their annual report on all they have done, reviewing progress that has been made around several quality and patient safety initiatives. One of their project centere…
The many benefits of strengthening the primary care workforce
The United States spends more on health care per capita than any other country in the world — yet health outcomes continue to fall short. In order to close the spending gap with other countries, United States health care policy must focus on reducing c…
What administrators don’t understand about urgent care centers
Several years ago, a group of us concerned about health care costs and outcomes met with some local HR benefit managers. One was the head HR person of a city. In part of the conversation, she raved about a local chain of urgent care centers. She loved …
Doctors overcorrect too often
Back when cholesterol target numbers ruled unopposed (before 2013), we all checked fasting lipids every three months. Before 2012, we also checked liver function quarterly in hapless riders on the cholesterol pill merry-go-round. That year the FDA anno…
3 things physicians can learn from politicians
Shock. Horror. Did you just read the title correctly, or are you seeing things? Well, after you recover from the shock of reading a line you probably never thought you could possibly see in writing — let me tell you this: Physicians and politicia…
Changing the focus from physician burnout to physician well-being
Physician well-being is a major focus of many physician organizations and is frequently highlighted in popular media. Some have described the root of the problem as a disconnect between expectation and reality. This is a helpful framework for situati…
Make your 15 minutes with a patient memorable
Compassion. Empathy. These are some of the words commonly thrown around in medical school and residency training. If you ask most medical students why they chose medicine, they will respond with something like this: “ I love to help people,” or “I want…
The complex expectations of patients toward their physicians
When my father reached his mid-80s, an accelerating accumulation of physical and mental functioning issues persuaded him to switch to a primary care physician in a concierge medical practice. Although the doctor’s pedigree proclaimed his competence, he…
Physicians are trapped between patient satisfaction and unnecessary prescribing
I don’t mean to pick on McDonald’s. Insert any other large retail business where customer satisfaction massively trumps every other consideration of the relationship between employee and customer. Telemedicine companies have exploded the past few years…
