Today’s healthcare system has a lot of moving parts and a vital one is the primary care clinic. The clinic helps reduce the number of hospitalizations and potential complications through early medical intervention and patient education. Even though finding a primary care facility is relatively easy, the clinics are facing challenges that can limit their effectiveness.
So, what are these challenges? While some challenges are area-specific like a lack of patients able to afford healthcare, others are more widespread. These are the hurdles primary care clinics must address to remain an effective part of a city’s healthcare network.
Common Challenges Primary Care Clinics Are Facing
Primary care clinics provide a wide range of services from overall healthcare to diagnosis, treatment, counseling, support, and education. Along with general practitioners, most clinics also offer specialized services like prenatal care.
While essential for the well-being of the community, challenges are making it harder for primary care facilities to be as effective as often needed.
Patients Have Limited Physician Choices
Not all physicians are known for their soothing bedside manner. Some are a little gruff and may even seem rude. Some patients do appreciate the brief interaction with their physicians, while others prefer a friendlier attitude.
At a primary care clinic, your options are often limited whether you’re there to see a specialist or a general practitioner. Your general practitioner may also have a subspeciality which can limit your ability to switch doctors.
In other words, you’re stuck with whoever is employed by the clinic, which means while you’re receiving great healthcare, the provider isn’t particularly suited for your needs.
Quality of Care Often Varies
This isn’t an issue at every primary care clinic, as most do provide exceptional healthcare to their patients at all times. However, just like a physician’s way of dealing with patients can vary so can the quality of healthcare.
Unfortunately, this is more of a challenge affecting lower-income regions. The clinic may not have the budget to employ more than one physician. This means while there’s access to healthcare, the physician is rushing through their daily list of patients. The financial struggle can also extend to the type of services the clinic can offer.
For example, primary care clinics in larger cities and more affluent neighborhoods tend to offer a variety of services. This isn’t always the case in other regions. The clinic may be forced to give up a department like cancer screening and treatment to ensure they can still offer basic primary care.
Reactive Healthcare Decisions
The goal of seeing your physician each year is to evaluate your overall health and screen for any potential issues. If a patient reports signs or symptoms of a possible medical condition, the physician usually takes steps to diagnose and prescribe treatment if necessary.
Being proactive about your health is something medical professionals stress. After all, you don’t want a minor issue to turn into a major health complication.
Both private and public primary care clinics are struggling with being proactive instead of reactive. For some, it comes down to operating costs. Running diagnostic testing to check for a potential issue is often viewed as a waste of resources. The bottom line can take a front seat to patient preventative care.
A Shortage of Qualified Physicians
Before you start panicking and worrying about getting treatment for a medical emergency. The shortage of qualified physicians currently only applies to general practitioners.
Medical school graduates are overwhelmingly choosing to go into specialized fields. Sometimes graduates choose to specialize because they’re passionate about the field. Other times, they’re more interested in the potential higher earnings.
Yes, a heart surgeon typically commands a higher salary than a general practitioner. This is just a fact of the profession. Unfortunately, this is leading to a shortage of general practitioners going into primary care.
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is predicting by 2032 the shortage of physicians will number between 46,900 and 121,900. This means a lot of primary care clinics may be operating with a limited staff.
Burnout is Real
A recent Medscape study looked at burnout rates among general practitioners and found around 42% are dealing with burnout. While urologists top the list, family care physicians come in at a close second. Burnout can be a particular problem for primary care clinics that are already facing hiring challenges.
To help combat physician burnout, some primary care clinics are working diligently to change their business model.
These clinics are focusing on not only meeting patient needs but also those of their physicians. This can include bringing on additional support staff like doctor assistants and nurse practitioners to take some of the workload off of general practitioners and ensuring staff has adequate time off.
Preventing physician burnout is a challenge almost all primary care clinics are going to need to address.
Patients Have High Expectations
Even twenty years ago, healthcare was relatively affordable. Even if they’re not covered by insurance, most people still have access to basic healthcare. This has changed, especially as healthcare costs continue to rise. With rising prices, patient expectations are also going up. This is a normal response. If you’re paying a higher price for something, you naturally expect more.
Patients at primary care clinics expect to be seen at the time of their appointment. Even waiting a few minutes can have them impatiently tapping their feet. Patients also expect their physicians to treat them with respect. This means taking the time to understand each patient’s unique health struggles and goals.
When these expectations aren’t met, patients tend to look for healthcare at other clinics. While higher healthcare costs may help support a clinic’s operating budget, it does little if patients aren’t making appointments.
Primary Care Clinics Are Working to Overcome the Challenges
There’s no denying primary care clinics are facing challenges unique to the healthcare industry. However, plenty of clinics out there are taking steps to help overcome many of today’s challenges.
From offering more patient-centered care to focusing on the needs of their staff, primary care clinics are working diligently to ensure they can still provide quality healthcare to every patient that they serve.