Primary care is crucial for building a strong healthcare system that ensures positive health outcomes, effectiveness, efficiency, and equity. It is the first contact in the healthcare system for individuals and aims to provide the patient with a broad spectrum of preventive and curative care over a period of time. It provides individual, family and community-oriented care for preventing, curing or relieving common illnesses, disabilities, and promoting overall health wellness.
Cholene Rajauski didn't carry a stopwatch when she went to see her primary care physician for a sore throat, but she is certain the physician was not in the exam room with her for more than four minutes.
You call your doctor's office for an appointment and are told it'll be about 3 weeks. You arrive on time only to sit in the waiting room for 30 minutes. Finally you get to see your primary care doctor and you begin to explain why you came in. The doctor asks a few questions, does a brief exam, gives you a prescription, suggests you see the specialist and within 10 minutes, you're out the door. No time for delving deeply into your issues. No time to build trust. No time for compassion. No time for actual healing.
In an study published last week entitled, “Direct Primary Care: Practice Distribution and Cost Across the Nation,” Philip Eskew, DO, JD, MBA and Kathleen Klink, MD, document, research and analyze Concierge Medical Practices and Direct Primary Care (DPC) practices spanning across the United States. Topics include: the stigma associated with the term "concierge," a distinction between the various healthcare models, an explanation of why DPC is growing in today’s medical world, and an an analysis of how it meets the basic desires of both physicians and patients and how it is priced across the U.S.
As the number of older Americans continues to grow significantly, many are facing problems finding physicians who are trained and experienced in treating the health problems that become more common with age. To make matters worse, the U.S. will face a shortage of between 46,000 - 90,000 physicians by 2025. But, there is a way to win during this inevitable doctor shortage and that is with direct primary care (DPC). With more and more direct primary care practices opening up across the country, you can have easier access to your doctor, longer appointments, same day appointments, and coordination of care when you travel.
