The healthcare landscape is changing rapidly. We moved from the age of Physicians visiting patients’ homes to corner clinics to group practices to ACOs and Hospitals.
Now what? Is the Small Private Practice a relic of the past? Here is some research:
- Healthcare Reform and the Decline of Physician Private Practice – Whitepaper and survey conducted on behalf of The Physicians Foundation by Merrit Hawkins.
- Collaboration is the key to small practice survival – Medical Economics, July 25, 2013
- Is it R.I.P. for Solo and Small Physician Practices? – The Lund Report, by Paul. R. DeMuro, April 24, 2013
- “The Decline of Solo and Small Medical Practices” – Testimony before the United States House of Representatives
The jury is still out. What is clear however is things are changing and the American ingenuity will reinvent the Small Practice – again.
I should not be surprised when I read an article in FastCompany Magazine of all places, related to a healthcare paradigm shift. I would urge every one of you to read this article.
The Doctor’s Office Of The Future: Coffeeshop, Apple Store, And Fitness Center
Patients – us – are also consumers. As the article says, ‘As Americans try to figure out what changes the Affordable Care Act will bring to their lives and pocketbooks (and politicians continue wrangling over the rollout), here’s one that probably missed everyone’s radar: the new experience that could be waiting for people in their primary care doctor’s waiting room.’
Starbucks became a ‘destination’ rather than just a coffee shop. It became a place for us to relax, congregate, read, whatever we connected with. We know we want to stay healthy, but dread going to the lowly ‘waiting room’ of a doctor’s office. It is dreary, it is downright depressing in most cases.
If my Physician’s office was designed as the Article says, it would certainly become a ‘destination’ for me, it would actually motivate me to stay healthy.
