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How the Practice of Primary Care May Differ Inside the DPC Model
Few will argue that primary care has changed as corporate fee-for-service practices and their payment systems evolved. The average length of a family physician appointment is currently about 8 minutes. It is common for primary care physicians to see over 20, or even 30 patients per day. Many will argue as to the quantity vs quality issues that this change has caused, but one thing is very clear: patients prefer to have more time with their physicians and physicians feel rushed and regularly feel that their job satisfaction, as well as perceived quality of care provided, is worse. And most primary care physicians now have 2,000 patients or more.
In Direct Primary Care, this paradigm has changed. It is not uncommon for DPC physicians to schedule all or mostly one-hour visits, and even make 1-hour appointments available on a same or next day basis. Also, DPC physicians generally have smaller patient panels (on the order of 500-600.) Thus, the main thing that has changed is the number of patients a physician cares for and the amount of time spent with them.
With time, a DPC physician can expect to see a practice that differs in the following ways from a practice inside the traditional FFS system:
Deeper, more intimate, and meaningful relationships
Time to dig into and research difficult medical cases, and thus provide a wider spectrum of care and make fewer costly, inconvenient specialty referrals
Time to do more procedures that were formerly referred in the interest of clinic efficiency
Wider spectrum of care due to more time available to give patients (for instance, a family doctor may provide more mental health support and rely less on counselors or psych referrals)
Time to do more thorough patient examinations and education
Time to develop and devote to alternative methods of patient care (phone, e-mail, text, video calls internet education articles, etc.)
Time to devote to continuing education to expand your scope of practice more fully to provide better value
This list of highlights (and many more) are why so many DPC doctors love their jobs!
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How the Practice of Primary Care May Differ Inside the DPC Model
Few will argue that primary care has changed as corporate fee-for-service practices and their payment systems evolved. The average length of a family physician appointment is currently about 8 minutes. It is common for primary care physicians to see over 20, or even 30 patients per day. Many will argue as to the quantity vs quality issues that this change has caused, but one thing is very clear: patients prefer to have more time with their physicians and physicians feel rushed and regularly feel that their job satisfaction, as well as perceived quality of care provided, is worse. And most primary care physicians now have 2,000 patients or more.
In Direct Primary Care, this paradigm has changed. It is not uncommon for DPC physicians to schedule all or mostly one-hour visits, and even make 1-hour appointments available on a same or next day basis. Also, DPC physicians generally have smaller patient panels (on the order of 500-600.) Thus, the main thing that has changed is the number of patients a physician cares for and the amount of time spent with them.
With time, a DPC physician can expect to see a practice that differs in the following ways from a practice inside the traditional FFS system:
Deeper, more intimate, and meaningful relationships
Time to dig into and research difficult medical cases, and thus provide a wider spectrum of care and make fewer costly, inconvenient specialty referrals
Time to do more procedures that were formerly referred in the interest of clinic efficiency
Wider spectrum of care due to more time available to give patients (for instance, a family doctor may provide more mental health support and rely less on counselors or psych referrals)
Time to do more thorough patient examinations and education
Time to develop and devote to alternative methods of patient care (phone, e-mail, text, video calls internet education articles, etc.)
Time to devote to continuing education to expand your scope of practice more fully to provide better value
This list of highlights (and many more) are why so many DPC doctors love their jobs!