Quality over Quantity: A Crucial Paradigm

Imagine this: you’re sitting at the doctor’s office, waiting for your appointment that was scheduled 30 minutes ago.

Finally, your name is called, and you have all your vitals checked by a nurse for five minutes, before waiting in an examination room for another 10 minutes.

The doctor comes, talks with you for a few minutes, and disappears again. The nurse returns with a prescription and instructions, before you’re ushered to the cashier to pay up for your care.

Sounds like a quality interaction, right?

The truth is, rushed doctor visits are a big part of our current medical landscape—with dire consequences.

Back in 2014, CBS News reported that 12 million Americans were misdiagnosed every year. That number is only bound to be higher these days.

The reason for so many misdiagnoses?

CBS referenced a study by the journal BMJ Quality & Safety, which cited these rushed doctors’ visits to be “a big problem” with regard to accurately figuring out what’s going on with patients.

According to the CBS report:

“Previous studies examining the rates of medical misdiagnosis have focused primarily on patients in hospital settings. But this paper suggests a vast number of patients are being misdiagnosed in outpatient clinics and doctors' offices.”

As our current healthcare paradigm focuses on quantity—getting as many people through the doors as possible, as often as people need—people suffer with higher overall costs,  low-quality interactions with doctors and potentially dangerous misdiagnoses.

The solution is one of the key components of the Health Rosetta paradigm, and that of Southlake, Texas-based Captiva Benefit Solutions: Value-Based Primary Care.

We’re advocating for doctors and networks where the primary care doctor is once again at the core of the healthcare process, by giving patients the time and attention needed to make the best decisions for them. This cuts down on costs in the long run, as patients benefit from well-educated decisions by the doctors who know them, rather than shoot-from-the-hip hurried hypotheses.

Value-Based Primary Care is taking off as a trend in this country, with half of Medicare’s payouts expected to go to Value-Based providers this year. Illinois-based Damo Consulting reported this year that Value-Based care initiatives are the top driver for healthcare technology spending in 2018.

In his book, The CEO’s Guide to Restoring the American Dream, Dave Chase writes that “properly conceptualized and incentivized primary care is the front line of defense against downstream costs.”

What that means is it’s important to give doctors the ability to spend time with patients, because in the long run, it actually costs providers less money. It’s more expensive to fix misdiagnoses than it is to get it right the first time.

Want to immediately make the switch to Value-Based care? Want to learn more?

Contact us at Captiva Benefit Solutions to end the cycle of dangerously fast doctors appointments.

The article Quality over Quantity: A Crucial Paradigm was originally seen on: https://www.captivabenefitsolutions.com/