Visit timeslots

[JustPlainBill]

How long do most of you allow for various types of visits -- specifically new patient (NP) vs established and physical/WWE both new and established patient?

I was at 20 minute visits for established and 30 minute for physical/WWE/NP until my MA and I got our system down. Now I've switched to 15 minute for established and 30 minute for NP/WWE/physical -- or that's the plan. Lately the schedulers have been making everything a 15 minute visit, no matter what. When I brought it up to the CMO, the response was pretty much, "Suck it up, buttercup"....

What's everyone's practice?

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[VA Hopeful Dr]

How long do most of you allow for various types of visits -- specifically new patient (NP) vs established and physical/WWE both new and established patient?

I was at 20 minute visits for established and 30 minute for physical/WWE/NP until my MA and I got our system down. Now I've switched to 15 minute for established and 30 minute for NP/WWE/physical -- or that's the plan. Lately the schedulers have been making everything a 15 minute visit, no matter what. When I brought it up to the CMO, the response was pretty much, "Suck it up, buttercup"....

What's everyone's practice?

I did 20/60 in my first job out, but my practice was 90% medicare/Medicaid so that first visit was a doozy. A job I later turned down would have been 20/40 like your system was, but that was with a hospital system hemorrhaging patients to its competitors in town so they were willing to try anything. My PCP does the 15/30 approach and is ok with it.

 

[anthroguy]

Every visit of mine is 20 minutes, be it a sore throat or a physical on a new 90 yo. It kind of averages out, you spend 10 minutes with enough of the easies to get you 40 minutes with the latter type of patient. I only see 5-6 physicals in a day so it usually works out.

 

[deleted87716]

30 min. (2 15-min. slots) for new patients and physicals (max of 3 in the AM and 2 in the PM), 15 min. for everything else. I have 29 15-min. appointment slots daily, and typically end up seeing 20-25 patients per day.

 

[JustPlainBill]

Well, the idyllic Mayberry that I joined is gone forever -- used to be a fairly laid back operation -- if a physician needed time off or had to close up shop early on a day to make a meeting, no biggie, just call scheduling and have it done.....now that the merger has taken place with an investment company (49%), we now have a CMO (one of the major shareholders from the Mayberry side of the house) and corporate rules that would be recognizable to anyone in the US corporate world are coming down --- hard ----

Visits are now dictated -- 15 minutes across the board no matter what, if you need time off for any reason, it comes out of PTO -- need an hour, you have to take 1/2 day increments, no flexibility --- I'm waiting to be told I have to wear a white coat and/or suit --- but the rules are applied to the employees/employed physicians and obviously not the partners (which I would expect -- but I always make it a point to ask the partners if it affects them when the new rules come down from on high) ---

Probably time for me to go soon --- I hated engineering for this reason

 

[yeasports]

Wow JPB that sounds horrible! It seems you need an exit strategy. I am pure sports at this time but still get 5-10 fm emails a week. I would hope there are some opportunities in your area. Sounds like you might do well in DPC.

 

[JustPlainBill]

Wow JPB that sounds horrible! It seems you need an exit strategy. I am pure sports at this time but still get 5-10 fm emails a week. I would hope there are some opportunities in your area. Sounds like you might do well in DPC.

I don't know --- I'm also being told that since I am still wet behind the ears (3 years out of a very lousy residency) and gunshy when it comes to complex patients, I should probably bide my time where I'm at so a more senior physician can mentor me and help build my confidence -- this by one of the senior physicians at the location where I'm at --- to which I responded that since 2010 people have been telling me I suck as a physician (in residency I was actually told that I was pretty much at PA level) and I'm getting damned tired of it --- I just don't want to be the guy that shoves patients over the edge of the cliff so I tend to consult more and order more tests to try to rule things out, rather than just go with the obvious answer ---

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

New and annuals are 30
Established 15