In my opinion, the 12-15 minutes we have for patient encounters is sickening. Aside from the obvious benefit of forming a concrete relationship with your patients, TIME is an excellent diagnostic, educational, and motivational tool. For me personally, I space my patients at 20 minutes apart and to adjust for my expected quota, I stay late and more often than I like to admit, I work weekends. Some weeks it works itself out – some patients are in/out in 10 minutes, some patients are early, some are late, and some are refill appointments. Regardless of how my week unfolds, I sleep well at night and know that even on the smallest of levels, I do my very best for those that I swore to advocate for and moreover, to serve.

Insurance and pharmaceutical companies, government and private industry (healthcare related) hold the lion’s share of responsibility for the time constraints you described in your post but there’s another party partially – maybe even more so – than those listed at the start of this paragraph: Providers & patients!

As individual entities, providers and patients are in a symbiotic relationship and more to the point, need each other beyond the scope of survival. While I could burn through numerous pages describing this relationship, I’d rather make a simple statement. When you don’t standup for what’s right, including your own rights and the rights of others, everyone suffers. . .except for the guy sitting on the fence, watching a once powerful voice become faint, distant, and sadly, almost irrelevant. How many millions/billions of profit is enough? What is the statistical model used where financial savings/gains override human life and moreover, who rationalized the practice of clerical, desk-jockies having the skill and/or knowledge to make medically relevant decisions? The fact that I know the answers to these questions doesn’t reduce the nausea I feel in the least bit.

The saddest part, for me, revolves around what would be required of us – providers and patients alike – in order for change to occur. It’s sad because the cost(s) required inhibits – if not totally negates – such an action from over occurring. So, while I may not see a major revolution and the resulting change, I still smile each morning on my way to work. . .because for the time being, my very own mini-revolution allows me to treat my patients as they should be treated – as individual human beings!

I think doctors are suspicious of patients who read medical books too. Maybe an alarm bell rings – “Middle class hypochondriac”. Maybe it’s a threat to the stronghold called professionalism – “I gave up the best years of my life to cram physiology and wear a stethoscope. Who do you think you are?”