Current Standard Of Healthcare
The healthcare sector includes any company involved in products and services related to health and medical care. This can be further categorized in multiple industries. Physicians work within these industries by providing health services to patients located within a facility, their homes, or via telemedicine. This sector is obviously financially driven, and as the number of employed positions grow, the expectations from those serving our communities becomes exacerbated as well.
From a physician's perspective, a healthy patient means that they have done their job. Patients are well managed, thoroughly evaluated, and all concerns are addressed. From a patient's perspective, seeking a good physician, is one who provides quality service, spends time explaining complex medical conditions, and helps one navigate throughout their healthcare journey.
When there are more hands involved within the patient-doctor relationship, the worst the health outcomes can be. This is because the healthcare sector is a financially driven business industry that increases its earnings by seeing more patients within a given day. This squeeze to see more within a certain time, leads to missed opportunities to help make a difference in a patient's life.
A survey published by Frederic Michas, taken between 2012-2018, researched how many patients a physician saw per day. This was expanded to include how much time a physician spent with each patient, and how this made the physician feel in terms of "burnout" associated with their workload. The survey concluded that a majority physicians saw between 11 and 20 patients per day, and that physicians spent on average 17 to 24 minutes with their patients to help manage their conditions and concerns. If physicians saw more than this number, it led to physician burnout and subsequently the lack of time between patients and physicians could lead to patient mistrust.
When researching further into the amount of patients one physician can manage within their panel, the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine stressed that smaller patient panel sizes enable the primary care physician to focus more on each patient, giving each patient more time and attention. This enables the physician to manage complex medical conditions, and coordinate care appropriately. The research also indicates that when physicians provide continuity of care to an appropriately sized panel, patients are better managed leading to improved health outcomes due to longer visits, improved communication, appropriate behavior counseling, and coordination between subspecialist, and more impact in patient outcomes.
Practice Size Does Matter
When researching the number of encounters physicians see per day, both independent and employed models can work in terms of being successful. Large corporations and independent practices that follow a model of limited patients per day led to better outcomes. This is a goal that most practices should aim for. When it comes to retaining physicians in these practice settings, job satisfaction and pay were major determining factors in how long a physician stayed with a practice.
From a patient's perspective, one should seek a primary care physician, who will be by their side for years to come, who can enjoy their working environment, and be the primary source of communication within a practice. We, at Florida Advanced Medicine, understand this important aspect of medicine. Our model is simple, yet sophisticated. We focus on the only factor that matters: Patient Outcomes.
We are focused on providing bespoke services to our community, with micro practices in every neighborhood. We hand choose our staff members, who share the same passion towards health care that we do. We are reachable, and limit barriers in between the patient and doctor relationship. Patient's who seek optimal healthcare understand this concept, and will prefer this environment when seeking preventative care.
When we onboard additional physicians, our focus is to provide an optimal environment for out doctors to perform at their best capabilities. We want to eliminate "clutter", and allow for a truly life changing experience for our patients. We keep panel sizes small, and are able to do so with our minimalistic business model. This allows us to continue to grow into more communities, providing exceptional services to all that seek attention to detail.
We are now serving the Central Florida region, contact us at (833) 377-4984 to schedule your appointment today.