Our current healthcare system often encourages unnecessary care in a high-cost, poor-quality environment. Unless the healthcare system is redesigned and improved, we will continue to squander precious resources on a broken system.

Redesigning The Office Visit

Quality Quest's goal is to redesign healthcare delivery systems to provide patients and clinical care teams with the support they need for the best possible outcomes. An important area of "redesign" is the doctor's office visit. Medical practices are generally run the same way. Many appointments are scheduled each day, resulting in short visits for each patient. All these visits keep the doctors and clinics busy and increase stress around the office, which can lead to lower quality patient care. In order to break this cycle of overworked doctors and underserved patients, a major shift needs to occur in the structure of the basic office visit.

Taking advantage of technology is one step in the right direction. Electronic medical records (EMRs) allow quicker and easier storage and retrieval of patient information. Creating interactive practice websites will allow patients to get advice on common health complaints, schedule their own appointments without calling the office, or email their doctor with questions instead of making an appointment for a visit. These changes will impact how doctors attend to patients.

A New Vision

Imagine a new healthcare system where the doctor spends the first hours of the day responding to patient emails. With the EMR readily available, the doctor quickly looks up the patient history and makes a note in his or her record about why the patient emailed. In-office patient visits will decrease because only those persons who really needed to see the doctor have an appointment. The lower number of visits decreases the stress of constantly being rushed and allows the doctor to spend more time with each patient. A recent study showed that patient satisfaction was most strongly linked to the time spent with the doctor. Increased face-to-face time with the physician will also increase patient happiness.

For this model to work, patients and insurers will have to adjust from the traditional office visit to a more creative approach. Patients will need to accept that they can get good, sound advice from their doctor without going in for an office visit. The model also requires patients to trust that their electronic records are being kept confidential. Insurance companies will be required to pay for online consultations and for physicians to manage chronic conditions over time.

Changing the idea of what constitutes an "office visit" will play a large role in shaping healthcare for the better. This type of redesign will provide needed relief for doctors and give patients more options for seeking their physician's advice. Although it seems like a small step in the process of transforming healthcare, redesigning clinic and medical office practices will make a big difference in creating a quality delivery system.