Why chairs must be comfortable – my two hours GP waiting experience

When Personal Health Meets a Packed Agenda: Reflections on Healthcare Optimization

Last week, it started on Monday evening with a headache, sore throat, and muscle aches; no surprise after one of my sons had the same symptoms over the weekend.

„Jackpot!“ I said to myself, with a fully loaded agenda, including a months-ahead planned workshop with a promising company. I’m leading the collaboration. „No good moment to be sick,“ I realized.

On Wednesday, after cancelling all meetings and workshops for the day, I was still not feeling better. I realized that I would have to go to the doctor to get an „incapacity of work“ certificate, in Germany mandatory to be presented to your employer by law on the third day of non-working.

I called the doctors‘ office asking for a medical appointment: „You can come at 5.30 today or tomorrow the entire morning.“ „Tomorrow,“ I replied, hoping to get better overnight.

At 9.30, I joined my wife and kids who were going to the paediatrician next door to get vaccinated, presenting myself to my GP.

„Please take a seat,“ the lady at the counter asked me and so I did, not knowing that I would have to wait.

While waiting, more and more people came in beside the six patients being ahead of me. I was surprised to see this practice being jam-packed, as I never saw more than 2-3 people waiting to be seen.

After an hour of waiting and seeing people being called in that arrived significantly later than me, I asked the lady if she could estimate how long it’d take, as I was planning to catch a ride back home with my wife that was almost done.

„No, I cannot,“ she replied, „two more people are ahead of you.“ So I sat down and used the time for reading the latest articles on the web and even did a CME clinical training.

Thirty minutes later, when three people were called in, I was slowly starting to feel uncomfortable on these plastic chairs with increasing headache, leading to once more reaching out to the lady at the counter. „You’ll be next.“

After more than 2 hours, I was finally called in, describing my symptoms and my self-diagnose of (surprise surprise!) a flu-like infection. Having a clinical background that my GP knew, he just asked me if I had all the medication at home and to rest, to avoid a cardiac muscle infection. „Yes, thanks,“ I replied, got the certificate of incapability of work and left his office after 3 minutes.

As my wife and kids drove home much earlier, I had sufficient time to reflect on this: „If I would have to re-define the system, how would I have done it?“ I asked myself and re-activated my consultant’s gen.

„I would re-define the order how patients are called in also based on their severity and the estimated time how long it would take,“ a lousy idea I admitted; this was a rather selfish example assuming that I’d be first as I „only“ needed the paper and already knew what was wrong. Ok, take off my list.

„I would use digital tools to share my symptoms upfront; using apps like ADA your health guide, which data would be made available, so my GP knows upfront that I show symptoms of a flu-like infection. I would inform him that I only needed this paper for my employer.“ I am convinced that this would—if all the German data privacy concerns were gone—would save several minutes per patient. However, it’d still require me to move into the GP practice.

„What would be my idealistic process?“ I asked myself and was surprised that this wasn’t my first thought. „I would have liked to stay in bed at my place with warm tea and comfortable clothes and just called in my GP for a quick telemedical assessment, doing a pre-health assessment via apps up front. My mobile phone would have turned into a medical accessory for diagnostics.

I am called 2min before the GP would have time, so we established a secure connection onto my mobile phone. Having video-audio conferencing enabled, the GP would see and hear me, could wirelessly monitor basic vital signs and understand that I—based on my history—knew what I was talking about. He would have sent me the digital certificated via email, which I would then have forwarded to my employer who—the second surprise—accepts this via mail.

Last but not least I would not have spent 2.5 hours in total being „on the move“ while requiring bed rest; certainly something that would have helped me much more than waiting in a potentially „germ“ environment being close to other infections.

The next day, I was feeling almost recovered and dropped an email to my insurance company asking, „Do you offer telemedical services with GP consultants?“

Being a digital native, a full-time employee, and a father that prefers spending his time with family rather than with to-be-optimized processes, I profoundly believe in the chances of digitization in healthcare. „Yes, we have a pilot running in your area that you can check out,“ the insurer replied surprisingly.

The future of healthcare is supported and enabled by medical, cloud-based solutions which will at the end help that the patients requiring face-time with their GP get it, while considerably „easy“ cases can stay in the place, where they feel best: At home.