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"Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor? " only if it's pre-programmed to be > 40 min late for each appointment
by plg 12y ago
"Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor? "
only if it's pre-programmed to be > 40 min late for each appointment
- parennoob 12y agoSeriously, what is the cause for this in American medicine? Every time I go in for something simple, I have to go through about 3 layers of administrative people before even a nurse practitioner sees me. I'd be really glad if I could interact with a computer-based system in the mean time.
- bavcyc 12y agoThe doctor starts on time. Patient one requires slightly more time than scheduled...repeat for other patients. Also doctors have other tasks than seeing patients: reviewing lab work (part of seeing patients?), pharmaceutical sales reps, signing paperwork, etc. Automation would be nice, but not sure how you could remove all the time sinks in US Medicine. /not a doctor, just observations as an end user.
- fnordfnordfnord 12y agoand some patients miss appointments, and nobody plans to be ill so there are last-minute "squeeze-me-in" appointments, etc. etc. Some practices manage this much better than others though.
- cscharenberg 12y agoI think that is the more interesting question: why don't practices get better over time at managing this? There are places I go: hair salon, doctor, the vet that are always 30 minutes behind. As a one-off that makes sense, but as a pattern stretching over years it means they don't adapt to account for this. If, on average, appointments take 2 minutes longer than they think then change the appointment times to account for that. Do _something_. It annoys me, as a process-oriented thinker, that so many offices never get better at handling average daily volumes.
- SilasX 12y agoUnexpected time-sinks are not unique to doctors.
- TheCoelacanth 12y agoNor are delays in appointments.