Reinventing office practice

It is time to abandon the series of one-on-one, in person, doctor-patient visits that constitute the prevailing model of primary care office medical practice. Patients wait weeks for an appointment and then an hour to be seen. They finally get ushered in to see a doctor who can afford to give them only 15 minutes (if they are lucky) before sending them on their way. Often the appointment is not for an acute problem—which could be handled in a brief visit—but instead was scheduled to …