Health Insurance Blog

‘To choose a new doctor is confusing for the consumers. They might want someone who is skilled, pays attention to their concerns and makes it easy to get an appointment. “Times are changing, and people’’s expectations of what they want from their medical care has changed, and we as practitioners are changing,” says Dr. Donald Klitgaard, a family physician in Iowa who, like doctors across the nation, has computerized his record-keeping, made it easier for patients to get appointments and helped his office staff become more efficient.

Nationally, only about 20% of physician offices are computerized; the rest still rely on notoriously inefficient paper charts. But computers are an easy benchmark for quality. They can help a doctor not just keep track of files, but also send out prescriptions accurately and quickly, get lab results inserted into the record automatically and be reminded what the scientific evidence suggests is the next best step with a patient.

At the same time, for doctors to get the most value out of computers, experts say they need to use them as more than word processors; physicians should use features such as electronic reminders to prescribe a test or a medication, and change the way they practice as a result. “I believe it really does translate to better care,” says Robert Eidus, a New Jersey physician with a background in business and medical quality improvement.

“But it’’s not just that I have an electronic medical record, it’’s how do you use it and how does it impact caring for patients.”Oso Family Medical Group in Mission Viejo converted to an electronic medical record system in 2004, going through the expensive and painful process of converting thousands of paper files. But it was worth it, says Dr. Lee Burnett, an osteopath and partner in the five-doctor practice.

This patient-centered approach is considered a new measure of quality because it means patients will be more motivated to not only see the doctor but also accept the medical and lifestyle-change advice dispensed. Good, basic customer service is part of the package, because it gets patients in the door.

The doctors at Oso Family Medical Group heard about the “new model” of family practice and that a first step is surveying patients to find out what they need. That yielded complaints about long waits and other annoyances. “I”ve always loved them, they treat you like family,” says patient Josh Dryman, a 33-year-old who lives in Laguna Niguel.

“But I had to wait an hour in the lobby and wait in the exam room another half-hour. Now when you go in, they get you in right away and the staff seems a heck of a lot friendlier.” Hearing these and similar comments from the people on whom they depended, the five doctors changed their — and their practice’’s — ways.

We saw the marketplace evolve to be much more patient-centric, and insurance companies looking for specific measures of how happy patients are with your practice,” Burnett said. “We”re trying to be on the cusp of this.”Of course, a good doctor-patient relationship comes down to more than a single measure of quality or modernization. And different people want different things from a doctor.

Nevertheless, having a doctor who takes pains to provide the kind of care patients need and want is arguably more likely to please them. It will require medical consumers to be willing to think through what they want, and ask questions even if that means asking a receptionist to put the call through to an office manager, nurse or the doctor.

Other aspects of this “new model” of family practice are largely invisible to patients but just as important: The staff acts as a team to improve patients” health by making sure they follow up on medical advice and make it to appointments; the doctors base care on scientific evidence rather than instinct or habit; patients with chronic illnesses receive follow-up care; the practice follows up on test results and visits to specialists rather than waiting for the patient to track down that information.

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