The Ins and Outs of the Group Visit Model

When you think of your typical visit to the doctor’s office, what do you think of? Does it sound like this? Sitting in a waiting room for 20 minutes, moving to the examination room, getting your vitals checked by a nurse, and then seeing your doctor for about 10-15 minutes on average.

You often have the sense that your doctor is rushed, you feel rushed, slightly overwhelmed – and the visit is over. You only then realize once you are out the door and halfway to the car that you forgot to ask all those questions you had prepared.

Cue in our Group Visit Model. What is it? It is a nontraditional lifestyle-based group visit between a provider, health coach and patients with a common chronic disease or symptom. In this model, patients will receive an educational approach for improving their root-based cause of chronic disease or symptom creating a sense of community.

What can a Functional Medicine Health Coach offer a provider’s patients? Imagine our doctor’s office and take it a step forward. As a Functional Medicine Health Coach, you have the opportunity to combine coaching with group visits at a provider’s office. The key principle of the Group Visit Model is that it expands visit time so that coaches can partner with patients and really give them the information that they need in order to implement behavior change and better choices successfully.

Implementing the Group Visit Model allows us to use the right education and bring time and attention back to the patient because, with the typical doctor’s visit, doctors are strapped for time. The doctor wants more time. The patient wants more time. The Ins and Outs of the Group Visit Model short course, with Dr. Shilpa Saxena explains why this model is so transformative for practices looking to improve the patient experience, maximize efficiency, and build community. In this short course, you will learn the ins and outs of everything you need to know from clinical, to operational, to financial benefits.

In summary, there are many benefits to implementing the Group Visit Model to your practice. The future of healthcare needs a collaborative care team that our healthcare system can depend on with healthcare providers and all of the staff. With primary care physicians’ burnout rates rising from about 43% in 2013 to 50% the following year, health coaches implementing the Group Visit Model is in need today!