The Healthcare Gap: How the Gap Is Created
In our previous blog post, we addressed the current gap in traditional healthcare between having a primary care provider (PCP) and seeing them. Now, we will look at why a business approach to care creates this gap that urgent care appears to fill.
How Prioritizing Profit Creates the Healthcare Gap
Treating healthcare as a business means prioritizing the profit a patient brings to the business. Does this approach undermine the goal of putting patients first? I believe so.
Currently, the business model of healthcare means that the business gets paid when:
The patient is physically seen at a doctor’s office.
The PCP does and documents as much as possible in that physical visit.
Doctors see as many patients as possible in quick, often impersonal visits. While the patient is there, the PCP documents as much as possible. These brief, heavily documented visits support the business model, not the doctor-patient relationship.
Sadly, this model creates a relationship/conversation gap as well. In a recent Harris Poll, a majority of Americans with a PCP (52%) report that they discuss little more than their medical needs with their doctor. 45% of those surveyed wanted more conversations with their doctor about why they want to be healthy.
Many Americans desire a good doctor-patient relationship, which is not achieved by short, heavily documented visits.
Placing Profit Over Patients Reduces the Quality of Care
In past medical visits, you may have noticed your PCP:
“Listen” to you while clicking boxes on the computer
Quickly fill out your medical record
Address your symptoms and medical needs with little concern for much else
If so, now you understand why. Physicians operating under this model are monitored by the business to make sure they remain profitable. In this way, even the patient’s medical record is treated more as a cash register, not an important communication tool for healthcare workers.
Under this model, doctors are monitored for things like:
The number of patients seen
How many buttons are pressed
How many things are done during the visit
These reports may even compare the physician to other doctors to assess their “performance” under the business model. Suggestions may accompany these reports, telling physicians how their productivity can increase.
None of these points of emphasis have anything to do with the patient’s care. In our next blog, we will highlight why the business approach to medicine prevents patients from getting the care that is needed.