Here’s What To Do if You Have a Tight Schedule and Can Never Get a Doctor’s Appointment When You Need One

It’s becoming more and more difficult to get a doctor’s appointment quickly. According to recent studies, patients are waiting anywhere from two weeks to 18 days on average to actually get into their physician’s office. Once they’re there, facetime with their doctor isn’t long: 25% of patients spend less than 10 minutes face to face with their doctors, and the average range is 13 to 24 minutes of facetime in a one-hour appointment. Doctors aren’t necessarily to blame for this, with intake processes and insurance constraints being just two of the many reasons why facetime is so limited. Regardless of where the blame lies, patients are left with the short end of the stick. If you’re finding yourself in a situation where getting an appointment when you need one is a struggle, and the appointments you do get leave something to be desired, it’s probably time for a change.

One Solution Rises Above All

Every year, it seems as though more and more alternatives are popping up to mitigate the problem of inefficient doctor’s appointments. Telemedicine is at the forefront of this movement; even before the pandemic, over one million telemedicine visits were recorded in 2019 (according to the CDC).

While Zoom doctor’s visits, text-based therapy appointments, and other similar alternatives help to curb the problem of appointment unavailability, they fail to get to the root of the problem: diminishing facetime between patients and doctors, which is a cornerstone of quality care. That’s where another, more effective, alternative comes in: concierge medicine.

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Concierge Medicine Explained

Concierge medicine is a relationship-based approach to patient care that rejects the limitations and inefficiencies of traditional primary care. While the conventional approach to primary care has patients calling in for appointments (often weeks ahead of time) with their doctors who they might see once a year, concierge medicine offers a much more continuous relationship.

Most concierge plans (including ours) give patients 24/7 access to their physician, whether that’s via email, phone, or text. It means that the physician isn’t left scrambling to catch up with a patient’s chart right before an appointment; instead, the physician is continuously updated on developments in their patient’s health.

This emphasis on continuous collaboration enables the patient and physician to work together to come up with a healthcare plan that evolves as the patient’s needs do. Rather than following a regimen for one year that might have become obsolete after 6 months, patients can check in with their doctors and make adjustments to their medicine, supplement, nutritional, and exercise regimens whenever it’s appropriate.

A Functional Approach

The relationship-based concierge model of care is inherently compatible with a functional approach to medicine, which seeks to get to the root cause of symptoms rather than just tamping them over with medications. Functional medicine is holistic, meaning that it calls physicians to take a variety of factors into account when diagnosing and treating their patients: genetics, personal history, diet, exercise, sleep, stress, and lifestyle habits are all taken into consideration. This allows doctors and patients to work together to come up with treatment plans that provide long-term wellness as well as immediate relief.

Why Go with Concierge

Opting for a concierge doctor allows patients to become active participants in their wellness journeys. At the same time, it’s more practical than conventional treatment–especially for patients whose busy schedules make it difficult to get a timely doctor’s appointment on the books. If you’ve been dissatisfied with your primary care experience, whether it’s in terms of wait time or facetime, a concierge physician could be an excellent option.

It shouldn’t be an uphill battle to get a doctor’s appointment, and when you work with a concierge physician who remains in constant contact with you, it doesn’t have to be. To learn more about what the concierge approach to patient care has to offer, click here.

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