digital divide network - article database

Some physicians are starting to make conscious efforts towards slowing down the pace of their operations and looking at an alternate approach to providing high-volume, insurance led healthcare services. These physicians do not accept insurance and instead charge the patients an amount commensurate with the kind of treatment that they need. The important point to be taken into account here is that the patients have to see some real value, both in terms of expenditure and care, which would attract them to choose this option. Understanding the importance of this point, physicians have been taking various steps. For instance some of them have put a cap to the number of patients they would like to provide treatment to. Besides charging a nominal fee for providing care they make it a point to avoid unnecessary tests and visits. These things go a long way in convincing patients of the real intent of these physicians. The defining step in this approach, which has been commonly agreed upon by participating physicians, is a change in their disposition in treating people as people only and not as healthcare consumers and spending qualitative time with each of them. No technological advancement in the field of medical science can substitute for these 2 factors. Although this initiative might be looked upon as rebellious, one cannot deny the fact that for a physician to shift to this mode of operation, he/she has to derive happiness out of connecting with patients and ensuring that their unnecessary expenses are kept at a minimum.

This new approach stands to contradict the common perception which people generally hold of higher-cost meaning higher or resulting in better-quality care. Because such a thing is going to result in patients under financial constraint being rendered unable to get proper medical care, many physicians have started advocating and practicing this new method of operation. For them, the best way to ensure the appropriate use of information is done by thoroughly engaging with their patients in discussions and taking appropriate actions subsequently. They also feel that the current medical system needs to be overhauled simply because it kind of unnecessarily penalizes doctors for caring. They feel that the main reason for most of the issues cropping up in current healthcare model is lack of proper patient-physician communication resulting in not only low satisfaction scores but also malpractice suits .Technological advancement should be used to facilitate the processes, making them faster and reducing errors but they cannot be expected to act as a substitute to direct interactions. They feel that the current model does not make allowance for factors like creating a rapport with patients, eliciting their views, demonstrating empathy and accessing the ability and willingness of the patients to actually follow recommendations – all of which are critical in the care process.

Although patients will have a lot of appreciation for Physicians willing to spend some extra time with them and having their full attention, there are also some issues to be dealt with if as a physician you have a desire to change in to this clinical minimalism approach of operating. For instance, it is highly likely to be running late on schedules with no upper cap as such on a per schedule time. Patients in queue might have to wait a little longer for their turn to come if a Physician requires to spend additional time with a patient who has an appointment. There would be a need to put a cap on the total number of patients a physician will like to be mapped to in order to ensure that the quality of care provided is good .Now all of this is going to have an effect on the finances. In short, how profitable a Healthcare facility operating on this model would be is a question which remains unanswered. Only if this practice is accepted in a broad way and a number of physicians participate in this approach that a concrete decision can be arrived at after recording and analyzing financial details of healthcare setups over a period of time. However, it cannot be denied that at present the physicians who are convinced about the success of this approach do not have financial benefits topping the list of deliverables they want to achieve through this model. Their ulterior motive is to provide better and affordable care to their patients which they strongly feel the current system fails to deliver. This brings us to the next quest of finding an efficient Medical Software development company.