TEN DISTINGUISHING FEATURES

Of a High Performing Doctor

and Medical Practice

1. Accessibility: same day appointments and walk-ins, evening and weekend hours.

2. Care is individualized to suit the needs of patients. Tests are completed and accomplished.

3. Patient feedback is important and acted upon.

4. Certain procedures and tests are done in house e.g. insulin initiation and stabilization, suturing.

5. Doctors stay connected with patients to assure that treatment plans respect patient preferences.

6. Patients are seen rapidly after hospital discharges; medications are sometimes prescribed or specialists referred. It's called closing the loop.

7. Staff members provide support that enables doctors to work harder, i.e. take care of more patients.

8. Staff work together without regard to hierarchy.

9. Compensation is balanced by concerns about patient care and experience, and improvements to practice-wide activities and resource utilization.

10. They rent modest offices and don't need to order expensive tests to generate more income.

This dream list should be in the offices of every practicing primary physician, and many specialists.

This information is taken from an article about primary care sites that Stanford University identified in a summary along with shared characteristic features. 

These points about patient care appear common sense, but at the same time, are idealistic and often ignored to some extent in America. In my own experience, patient feedback is rarely requested, nor are patients seen rapidly after hospital discharge or by request. Staff working together and cooperating is not just important but essential in this computer age. Doctors will have work hard to achieve all the points on this list.