Shared visits
Dr. Richard Kratche, a family physician at Cleveland Clinic who conducts group visits for physicals, says the process isn’t what you might imagine.
“As soon as I mention shared medical appointments, everybody automatically pictures a room full of people in their underwear,” he tells CNN.
Kratche says that’s not the case. Patient’s come in and talk with a doctor and nurses in a group setting. It’s a combination of a physical and group therapy. Doctors say patients get more out of the experience.
“It’s a different way of speaking about health that is more about friends around a circle learning together than talking with an authority figure in a white coat,” says Dr. Jeff Cain, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, in describing shared medical appointments.
Patient reaction
Patient George Heatherly says he was hesitant about group appointments at first, but not anymore.
“It made me a little uneasy since I wasn’t sure how intrusive the whole process would feel,” he says. “But what I found once the appointment started was a bunch of diabetes patients sitting in a room with a doctor, a nurse educator and a couple of physician assistants. We are all diabetes patients, and we’ve all had our ups and downs in the process of dealing with this illness.”
Healtherly isn’t alone, about 85 percent of patients that experience group appointments stick with them, preferring not to go back to individual sessions.
Your thoughts
Tell us your thoughts about this new phenomenon. Would you be willing to participate in a group appointment? Tell us in the comment section below.
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