Time Spent in Clinic

Everyone complains about how little time physicians spend with them. Sometimes a perception is based in reality and other times it is just that: a perception.

I have observed the patient perceives the physician spent less time if she appeared rushed.

I have read that the average patient contact time in England is under 6 minutes, but that was over a decade ago. The number stuck because around the same time, I ran into another study of changes in face time time in the US over the years. According to that author, it was more than England at the beginning and has increased over time.

One possible explanation for the reason face time has increased but the perception has been that physicians are spending less time with our patients may be that there is more to do and we are more rushed.

I'm sorry I don't have the references, but it's enough to make my point. The details: well, you can't compare times across studies with different methodologies and I am not sure I would trust time estimates if they were not directly observed.

Here is a report of a new study at The Healthcare Economist that suggests there is a greater influence on time spent with patients: payment arrangements. This is a direct observation study analyzed by payment methodology. One consideration is always comparing how similar the different groups were, especially in complexity. As it turns out, as direct observation, the study authors could assess the complexity of patients and seem to have addressed the problem.

If you care about cost, you would increase productivity by continuing managed care incentives. If you want quality, you could encourage salary arrangements. Or you could find a way of incentivizing to maximizing both.