Concierge Medicine 24/7 Availability: Is It Ever Abused?
Concierge Medicine 24/7 availability is one of the biggest perks for patients who are thinking about joining a concierge practice. However, as a physician, you may be wondering whether this availability is ever abused. While there’s no guarantee that it wouldn’t ever be a problem, many physicians experience very few issues when it comes to concierge medicine 24/7 availability.
As a real-world example, we spoke to SignatureMD-affiliated physician Dr. Joel Meshulam about his experiences with the increased availability. Here’s what he had to say:
As Joel describes, when he looks at the big picture, he doesn’t feel there has really been any significant abuse of his 24/7 availability:
In terms of the whole picture of my practice, no, there has really been no abuse.
Because patients have time, and they’re able to be seen when they want to be seen, it’s far less likely that they’re going to have an emergency when I’m away on vacation or when I’m out for the evening. It just doesn’t happen that often at all.
When it comes to managing your availability, it can be helpful to set some initial guidelines with your patients during your conversion process. If you’re interested in learning more, we encourage you to take a look at our article on a what it’s like to be a patient during a concierge conversion.
About SignatureMD
SignatureMD is one of the nation’s largest firms providing initial conversion and ongoing support services to concierge medicine physicians. SignatureMD currently partners with over 200 affiliated primary care physicians and specialists across 35 states, and its network is rapidly expanding.