Quality
We became physicians because we wanted to deliver excellent care; then the system buried us in metrics that measured everything except what actually matters to our patients. In DPC, we’re free from the tyranny of metrics that measure speed over thoroughness, volume over value, and documentation over healing. The absence of “quality” metrics doesn’t mean DPC practices don’t have standards, it means raising them in ways that actually matter. For most of us, our standards show up as the things we’re genuinely proud of when we talk about our practice. The reasons your patients tell their friends about you. For some DPC physicians, it’s the breadth of services they offer, taking on medical challenges that would require three specialist referrals in a traditional practice or keeping procedural skills sharp that other docs have let atrophy because the system didn’t incentivize them. For others, it’s communication and availability, responding to patient messages within at most a couple of hours and offering after-hours care. Some even master becoming the healthcare system navigator, knowing which specialists actually listen, which imaging centers don’t make patients wait three weeks, and how to cut through insurance bureaucracy when your patients need you to. At my practice, we pride ourselves on our availability. One of our missions is to keep patients out of urgent care clinics and emergency rooms whenever possible. All of us at my practice at some point have gone into the clinic at night or on the weekend to take care of someone.
What aspect of your practice makes you the most proud? What drives your standard of care? Maybe it’s the depth of your relationships. Maybe it’s clinical outcomes you track informally but rigorously. Maybe it’s the fact that you’ve made your office accessible to patients that other practices overlook. What makes your practice exceptional? Share in the comments. We all entered DPC to practice better medicine, so let’s celebrate what “better” means to each of us.
Yeah, but how do we provide that data to computer nerds, third parties, benefits advisors, or employers in a way that helps? They all harp on data and metrics. Happy patients don’t seem to count for much.
Not interested in data nerds. curious what think they do particularly well in their practices