Who are you here to see? Do you still live on Lakefront Drive? Are you still with Medical Mutual? Do you have your insurance card?”
So begins another visit to my physician.
Don’t get me wrong, I really like and trust my doctor, and I understand the need for such basics. But given all of our discipline’s emphasis on teamwork, electronic health records, and patient satisfaction in recent years, I’m trying to figure out how patients got lost in—or left out of—what is supposed to be a patient-centered medical home.
I realize there are patient navigators, care management nurses, and a small army of other clinicians eager to assist me and ensure that I get patient satisfaction surveys, offers of new services, and reminders to keep my appointments. And it’s reassuring to know that there is someone in my doctor’s office who’s ready to administer a comprehensive pain scale if I so much as stub my toe. Still, I wish the patient experience could be more like a Burger King order—I want it my way!
Why can’t I use a Web-based scheduling system to make an appointment at a time that’s most convenient for me? How come I have to pay for parking? Why don’t I have a smart card that would streamline the check-in procedure so I don’t have to repeat the same information over and over again?
Come to think of it, why are doctors’ offices closed during lunch hour (or their phones switched to their service), at the very time working people can slip away for a quick doctor visit or make a phone call? And why is there a waiting room with those “helpful” videos on prostate cancer?
Instead of being tailored to the needs of patients, many medical practices have been designed for provider convenience—and to maximize profits. If even half of the resources typically used to devise a better billing process were invested in improving the patient experience, we’d be well on the way to creating patient-centered medical homes.
I know that some family physicians have been quite innovative in designing medical practices that are truly patient-centric. If you’re among them, I would love to hear from you. If you’re not, it’s time to get busy—and put the patient at the center of the patient-centered medical home.