How would you respond if you sent your sputtering car to the auto mechanic, and they prevented trying to diagnose the issue after 15 minutes? You would probably revolt if they told you that your period was up and gave back the keys.
Yet in medicine, it is general for practices to schedule sufferer visits in 15-minute increments—often for developed patients with less complex requirements. Physicians face pressure to mind the clock while they investigate you.
That is not to say that your physician “clocks out” as soon as your 1 p.m. appointment hits 1:15, or that all appointments last that long. What it does mean is that sufferers and doctors may be deprived of the opportunity for more meaningful discussions about the underlying causes of their issues and plans to make better them. A woman in her 50s who presents with high blood pressure and obesity might require medicine. But a longer conversation about the stresses of being the primary caregiver to her father, who has Alzheimer’s, could help offer strategies to help her look after herself.
When you see a new sufferer every quarter hour, there is often scant time to get to these root causes, to make right diagnoses, and establish the best treatment plans. And there is the danger that you miss a huge diagnosis altogether.
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