Your Healthcare: Doctor's Office or Hospital Setting?

Your Healthcare: Doctor's Office or Hospital Setting? There was a time when if you were sick, you went to the doctor's office. If you were really sick, you would be admitted to the hospital. Now, as the ever-evolving face of healthcare in the United States continues to change the ways in which we receive our healthcare, the choices we make in our healthcare settings can play a significant role in the care that we receive, and the way that we feel about it. In the new day of Managed Care Plans and Health Maintenance Organizations, it is now fairly standard to find all your doctors in one location- your affiliated hospital. You can see everyone from your primary care physician to a very specialized specialist in the same location, with the added expediency of laboratory, radiological, and emergency services all under one room. But is the convenience of the hospital setting for outpatient healthcare a better way of managing your medical needs? This article will explore some of the pros and cons of the benefits of receiving your healthcare in a private or offsite doctor's office against those of having most of your healthcare needs met at your local affiliated hospital. Your Healthcare: Quality of Service in the Doctor's Office or Hospital Setting
When you are being seen by your personal physician for a problem, it is not unlikely that he or she will want to get another opinion or some more specialized information about what is going on with you. There are times when having your doctor located in the hospital setting over a private office may be beneficial to you, the patient. If your doctor thinks that it is important that you be seen right away, either by a specialist, or for some further testing, it can be very helpful that all the necessary services may just be a couple of floors away. You doctor may be able to contact the appropriate personnel and get you seen right away. Should it be determined that your healthcare concern require further investigation, your doctor or the specialists he or she has referred you to may decide that it is in your best interest to be hospitalized as an inpatient for a period of time, where all necessary investigation can take place, and usually in a very timely manner. There are different parameters for inpatient and outpatient care when scheduling consults, tests, and procedures, and an easy admittance to the hospital is often the most efficient way of diagnosing a problem and beginning treatment, should such care be warranted. However, for the less emergent concerns affecting your healthcare, it is very likely that you will find more benefit from having your healthcare managed in the setting of a private, or smaller doctor's office. One reason for this is that the smaller practices tend to experience somewhat less chaotic schedules, as the number of sources for emergency add-on appointments is decreased significantly by removing the practice from the hospital setting, thereby affording your primary care physician or specialist more time to spend with you and on your needs. Another reason that you may find your healthcare needs are better met by having your care managed in a smaller doctor's office is the direct access you have to the actual physician, and not to the resident or fellow the physician is supervising. Today, many of the nations hospitals are teaching hospitals for the local universities' medical schools. What this means is that most of the attending physicians will be assigned supervision over residents and fellows completing their training. Residents typically complete what are called "rotations" in varying fields of interest, while fellows will complete longer rotations or "fellowships" in specialties that they are interested in becoming accredited in. It is typical in teaching hospitals for patients to spend the bulk their visit, particularly in specialists' offices, with a resident or fellow. The trainee will perform the examination, evaluation, and intake of your concerns. He or she will then present the findings to your physician, who will come in and go over them with you and the trainee, and together the attending physician and trainee will formulate a plan for your care. Although the trainee is well supervised and the attending physician will need to sign off on all observations and plans the resident or fellow wants to put in place for your healthcare, many patients feel more comfortable having a fully trained, experienced physician present for the duration of the examination and for the gathering of information about their healthcare concern. Your Healthcare: Quality of Referrals in the Doctor's Office or Hospital Setting
When it becomes clear that your primary care physician needs to refer you to a specialist in a medical specialty that may best determine the cause or diagnosis of the healthcare concern you are experiencing, and treat that concern properly, the manner in which the best referral for your care can be made may be altered somewhat by the setting of your primary care physician. The question of whether you healthcare needs are most benefited by your physician's location in a smaller doctor's office or in a hospital setting when it comes time for a referral to a specialist will depend on perspective and need, as there are pros and cons to both. For some, there is a clear benefit to having their primary care physician located in a hospital setting, simply by the availability of access and familiarity. A doctor located in a hospital setting will get to know the other doctors in that hospital by name and reputation. They may get to know a larger number of medical specialists than their counterparts in the doctor's office setting. They may know more about the temperament of the specialist, likelihood of getting a timely appointment, and how many other doctors are available to cover for that specialist in his or her absence. However, if your doctor is located in a hospital setting, it is extremely likely that the vast majority of the specialists he or she will refer you to will be specialists who are also located in that hospital. A doctor referring from a smaller doctor's office is likely to have a broader view of the availability of specialists outside the hospital setting. That doctor will have to rely more on reputation outside the hospital, patient input, personal connections, and other means of determining his or her preferred specialists in the varying areas of medicine. For many patients, this is a more reliable way of finding the best specialist to address their health care concerns. Your Healthcare: Time Expediency in the Doctor's Office or Hospital Setting
Time expediency in healthcare can be a major issue for many patients. If you are a patient who needs to see a lot of doctors, this issue can be one of great impact on your life. It may even be a determining factor about whether you choose to have the bulk of your healthcare managed in a smaller doctor's office or in a hospital setting. Almost without exception, you are going to find shorter waiting times (except in unusual circumstances) in the waiting rooms of a physician located in a smaller doctor's office. The hustle and bustle of the hospital setting, coupled with the larger number of other physicians sending patients over for emergency add-on appointments, can really back up the appointment schedule in a office or clinic set in a hospital setting. A half hour wait in a doctor's office can be a two-hour wait or more in a clinic waiting room in a hospital setting. However, if you are a patient who may perhaps anticipate being one of those emergency add-on appointments, having that availability can be crucial to your health care needs, avoiding excess visits to the emergency department or inpatient admittances. Also, the time saved driving from doctor's office to doctor's office can be factored into your wait time, and offset some of the time you have spent reading the year old golfing magazines.
Your Healthcare: Overall Sense of Well Being in the Doctor's Office or Hospital Setting Your overall sense of well being during physician appointments may be impacted by your decision whether to see your doctor in a smaller doctor's office or in a hospital setting. For most healthy patients, the feel of a hospital, the crowded crush of the lobby, the taxed efficiency of the busy office staff are all conditions that make coming to a hospital for routine or even specialized care a stressful experience. Parking and traffic conditions around medical centers can also impact a patient's sense of well being. On the flip side, however, there is comfort to be found for patients who like to know that any problem they may encounter with their health can be addressed in the office, or within a very short distance from where they are. Whether experiencing an allergic reaction to an injection or response to a test, an exacerbation of their initial complaint, or some completely unforeseen event for complication, the emergency response time in the hospital setting cannot be equaled in a smaller doctor's office.

There are pros and cons to nearly every aspect of the choice of whether to decide to choose a physician who will manage your health care from a doctor's office or from a hospital setting. With some investigation, and enough information, you should be able to make the choice that best suits your healthcare needs.