Direct Primary Care Pediatrics – Should You Consider?

If you are a pediatrician, then the health and well-being of children is your number one priority. We study for many years in order to provide great care for the children in our communities. However, you also know that providing quality care for your patients can be difficult in our current healthcare environment. These are just some of the reasons why pediatricians are choosing to practice direct primary care pediatrics.

Fee for service practices often have to limit the length of their appointments. This results in shorter and more rushed visits. In order to keep the lights on and pay the office staff, many pediatricians need to see a revolving door of patients each day. The revolving door leaves less time to spend with kids and their parents. In addition to shorter appointments, you may also spend much of your day fighting with insurance companies. Does it aggravate you that you have to ask their permission to do what is best for your patients? 

For many of these reasons and more, an ever-increasing number of pediatricians are choosing direct primary care pediatrics. There are a growing number of pediatricians with innovative direct primary care practices all over the country. Direct care allows pediatricians to provide high-quality individualized care to a smaller number of children. In this blog post, we will discuss the many benefits of providing direct care to your patients!

Benefits for Your Patients

Pediatricians tend to practice in a direct-care manner because they want to use their time efficiently. When we have more time with each patient, we can provide high-quality holistic care. If you have the time to consider each patient’s individual needs, you can provide better care. Direct care benefits patients by making them feel heard and understood. This practice model also eliminates the rushed feelings that a visit to a traditional setting often causes. When you’re less stressed about time constraints, you’re a better listener.

Improved patient outcomes

Another benefit of direct care can be improved patient outcomes. When you have fewer patients to provide care for, you have the space inside of your mind to think through what is really going on with the patient. Is this stomach ache due to an organic cause or is it due to a mental health issue because grandma is dying of cancer?

When you practice in this way, you have greater access to the entirety of the child’s life. And if you do home visits like me, you get to witness that life taking place before your eyes. Considering the child’s life as a whole can prevent serious health problems down the road. With this kind of medical care, your patients can live better and healthier lives.

Increased patient satisfaction

Yet another benefit of direct care is that it leads to increased patient satisfaction. When you provide direct care, patients feel like they are getting the individualized attention they deserve. My patients and their families are more likely to stick to the things that I recommend because I have taken the time to listen to them and understand their family dynamic as it applies to their child’s condition. 

Many patient families feel burned by the system. Whether or not their child has chronic healthcare needs or just routine healthcare needs, they get put off by a system that is not very flexible. Parents want to know that their child’s cold is going to get better, that the rash on their child’s face is not something dangerous, and that their anxious child has other options besides medications. They want all of these things without waiting weeks to see their child’s regular pediatrician. Direct access to the pediatrician greatly increases their satisfaction. 

Benefits of Direct Primary Care Pediatrics for Caring Pediatricians 

In addition to the benefits that direct care provides for your patients, there are also many benefits for you as a doctor.

Improved work/life balance

One of the biggest benefits of direct care is that it can help you achieve a better balance between your working life and your personal life.  In a traditional healthcare setting, it is more difficult to take time off for your child’s field trip or re-arrange your day if your spouse is home with an illness.

As a direct primary care pediatrician, I have an increased amount of flexibility in my day. I schedule routine patient visits around my family’s weekly schedule. I’m often able to pick my daughter up from school or take her with me to see a child for a quick sick visit.  

While sometimes the lines between work and home are kind of a blur, often I have blocks of time to myself during the day. On occasion, I am spending time texting with patient families while I am trying to make dinner for my own family or while I’m trying to get my daughter ready for school in the morning. These things are acceptable trade-offs for me to have increased flexibility in my days. 

Increased job satisfaction

Another benefit of direct care is that it leads to increased job satisfaction. When I do a “meet and greet” appointment with potential new families, I often tell them that I started my own practice so that I could love practicing medicine again. After almost four years of doing this kind of practice, I feel more fulfilled and satisfied with the care that I provide for my patients and their families than I did when I worked for a corporation. While not every moment as a business owner is glamorous or awe-inspiring, I feel like overall my satisfaction with medicine has increased since practicing direct primary care pediatrics. 

Less Bureaucracy

In a traditional healthcare setting, there is not a moment that goes by that you don’t have to deal with an insurance company. The list of demands in a fee-for-service practice is long and arduous. Practicing via the direct care model allows for less bureaucracy.

Most direct care pediatricians find benefits in:

• Less paperwork
• Minimal interactions with payers
• Lower overhead costs
• Less staff

All of these things allow for fewer distractions and a greater ability to focus on the patient. They also contribute to the happiness of the pediatrician.

Is Direct Primary Care Pediatrics right for you?

As a pediatrician, you’re passionate about taking care of children. What if your current employment situation is hindering you from providing the best care that you can? Maybe it is time for a change. Direct primary care pediatrics benefits both the patient and the doctor and could serve both well if you:

• Want to spend more time with your patients and get to know them better
• Love one particular area of pediatrics and would like to develop a niche practice
• You’re a breastfeeding medicine physician and would like to learn how to care for breastfeeding pairs
• You have lost the passion that you once had for medicine and just want to love practicing pediatrics again

If any of these describe you, then let’s chat.