So... Dan Watrous from CA, I used to focus on efficiency. Cut people off to stay on time. Made them come back multiple visits. I always ran behind, stayed late, and still made some patients unhappy and myself unhappy. What I did was to make all my appointments 30 min (unheard of for lowly FP docs) and women Px appts 50 min. I discovered I had time to take care of most all the problems, got my notes done, even had time to chat. My providers and I are all much happier, patients love it, and reimbursement stayed about the same (we meet time requirements for charging high levels - if appropriate). I think what people want is time - which nobody can make more of. I imagine it's different in specialty clinics. Supply and demand will impact all of us. I wonder what's going to happen re number of providers. When socialized med was implemented in Canada and GB, 20-30% of providers "retired". In Anchorage up to 60% have stated they will consider this if ObamaCare passed.
I assume you hail back from ORU - Hi John & Miriam


______________________________________________

John Nolte, MD
Hillside Family & Occupational Medicine
Anchorage, Alaska 99507