Patient Ambiguity

According to Health Resources and Services Administration If the system for providing primary care in 2020 were to stay fundamentally the same as today, there will be an estimated shortage of 20,400 primary care physicians ("Projecting the Supply and Demand for Primary Care Practitioners Through 2020," n.d.). In addition this projection doesn’t include the decreasing number of people perusing the medical degree and the baby boomers retiring form this filed of science. In the hand we are experiencing a significant increase in NPs and PAs. Considering this projected shortage, which is actually a very frightening situation the increasing number of NPs and PAs, can effectively be integrated; we could reduce the number of physician shortage by over 69 percent in 2020.

Your post is similar to mine, and I am glad we think alike--great minds think alike. However, I don't understand what you meant by "today's patient's wait days maybe even weeks until they see a physician because they do not have that trusted bond with their physicians." I don't necessary believe the trust between the physicians and patient is the reason for that. Good, honest physicians will have a laundry list of patients and probably could be booked out for months. Therefore, it's hard to see them. Nonetheless, that wouldn't mean they had a trust issue. Let me know what you meant by that. Maybe I misinterpreted it wrong?

Many physicians in family practice have solo practice settings and receive fees based on services. A study by Hunter et al (2004) showed that many family physicians opposed capitation and patient rosters because many believe that capitation will lead to loss of autonomy. The competition for patients may increase under capitated payment and physicians would move to less serviced areas to attract more patients under their team (Hunter et al., 2004). Another research from Cohen, Ferrier, Woodward, & Brown (2001), found that only five percentage of Ontario family physicians believed that primary care reform will have a positive effect on them. Many family physicians were concerned about changes in practice

It is very important to enter the correct information about the immunizations that should be given to a patient and save the record of this vaccinations to avoid given same vaccinations to the same patient again and do not given unnecessary vaccinations to the patient. Immunization providers are required by law to record what vaccine was given, the date the vaccine was given (month, day, year), the name of the manufacturer of the vaccine, the lot number, the signature and title of the person who gave the vaccine, and the address where the vaccine was given. NVAC believes that in addition, the parent or guardian should be given a permanent record to keep and carry to office visits for updates. If this record is lost, a replacement with complete immunization data should be provided. Providers should verify vaccination histories from previous providers whenever possible, and if the provider of an immunization is not the primary care physician, a report of vaccines given should be sent to the primary care provider.

Despite of increased pressure to reduce health care spending, enhance quality of care, and prepare for changes associated with the federal health reforms, most of the players in the industry are venturing into new grounds. These players are usually distorting the difference between businesses that have conventionally been varying. Many health care facilities are mainly using enormous systems, combining with each other, and creating extensive new doctor work forces. These facilities are exploring setups that are insurance-like such as the direct initiatives to workers that lessen the

There is an urban legend about graduate medical education where physicians are advised to consider it an underestimation when patients report they consume four drinks per week; medical residents should consider it eight. Likewise, patients deceive doctors about cigarette and illegal drug use. The not-so-subtle message underlying the practice: patients lie.

Rosen says that in his field of pediatric rheumatology the ratio of patients to doctors is one of the aspects that contribute to long wait times. “In my field, pediatric rheumatology, there are little more than 300 doctors in the field in North America. Wait times for appointments can run up to four months” (Rosen, 2015). However, he and his fellow physicians, knowing that there is always room for improvement went on a mission to decrease patient wait time from one month to 72 hours. Using resources, techniques, and the unified goal of putting patient access as a top priority, Dr. Rosen and his team were able to set up a four year plan. In this plan, patients were being seen on first-come-first-served

Access to healthcare begins with a patient making an appointment. Disorganized scheduling leads to delays in providing care for patients and frustration among care teams. With patient experience becoming linked to provider payment, an emphasis has returned to reducing patients wait times and increasing patients ease of access to care [1,2]. Recent studies have shown that average wait times at the Veterans Health Administration’s primary care facilities was 42 days [1]. Limited private sector studies have reported similar results with a Massachusetts private sector study revealing average wait times of 39 and 50 days for primary care and internal medicine practices respectively [1].

In the United States there is a current and expanding shortage of primary care providers. A recent study by the American Academy of Family Physicians in 2013 estimated a total shortage of 12,000-31,000 primary care physicians and 28,000-63,0000 non-primary care physicians (Porter, 2015). Many factors contribute to the shortfall of providers in primary care including, but not limited to: rising education costs, length of training programs, rising number of patients over 65 years, and insurance reimbursement changes (Porter, 2015). It is estimated that in the next 10 years and onward, the shortage of providers in primary care will continue to grow (Porter, 2015). Many theories

Convenient access to care is a key factor in satisfaction. Patients with timely access to their primary doctors are less likely to seek costly care in the emergency department, and no show rates decrease when they do not have to wait days or weeks for an appointment.

cut down on telephone calls back and forth between the patients and the medical offices. These

2. Anderson, R. T., Camacho, F. T., & Balkrishnan, R. (2007). Willing to wait?: The influence of patient wait time on satisfaction with primary care. BMC Health Services Research, 7(1), 31. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/7/31/

The current process leaves a large gap in service by delaying the transfer of the patient due to the above contributing factors. Patient safety is a number one priority of our facility, each missed opportunity for a referral from a regional facility affects patient safety by delaying the necessary treatment. Alleviating the contributing factors increases the likelihood of further referrals. Each patient that enters our door generates an estimated revenue of 5000- 25,000 dollars, so each missed opportunity for transfer affects the bottom line which in turn affects each department and the level of care we can provide to patients.

One common experience my grandmother mentioned was that before she found the right doctor after many different specialists and physicians, the doctors the health care system would refer her to had not ever taken her best interest at heart. She has never expected for a doctor to be emotionally, physically and mentally supportive throughout her journey but she has felt that they had no concerns as to her needs. As mentioned in the text, colleague orientation is “a physician orientation toward gaining the esteem and regard of one’s colleagues; fostered by any health care provider arrangement that does not involve direct reimbursement to physicians by patients” (Taylor, 2014, p. 317). This requires that patients wait longer to see the doctor, but the appointments run for about 10-15 minutes, barely leaving any room to thoroughly go over any questions or comments regarding their medical conditions. This is due to high amounts of referrals and less focus on the patients.

This focuses on exploring the different expectations of patients relating to healthcare. It also further explores the need to understand how the different patient’s perceptions affect their satisfaction with the healthcare. The study found out that among the major expectations of customers in hospitals is quality healthcare. From the study, major knowledge can be used in the current study on patient satisfaction. It is a good read for researchers who aim at advancing an argument or evaluation on issues relating to the satisfaction of patients with healthcare services within hospitals. The major significance of the study was recommendations made to help with the improvement of healthcare.