Primary care: the variety and the intimacy of the problems I see

<p>"Fifteen minutes for a checkup or urgent problem, thirty minutes for a physical. In the tiny gasps of time in between: Refilling scripts, checking labs, and signing medical supply orders and insurance authorization requests. Maybe lunch. Maybe a chance to get to the restroom if I am lucky. Clicking, always clicking away on my EMR, hoping to finish my notes. Maybe typing notes while holding on a phone call (why do patients call with a question about a medicine, but they leave the vial upstairs and have to retrieve it while you wait?), while trying to cram a few bites of lunch, while wondering if I will get out of there in time to get the blasted Valentine’s napkins before picking up the kids from their after-school program.</p> <p>I take a deep breath."</p> <p><a href= "https://www.oakstreethealth.com/doctors/dr-melissa-schiffman-md" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Melissa Schiffman</a> is an internal medicine physician. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "<a href= "https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/08/primary-care-i-love-the-variety-and-the-intimacy-of-the-problems-that-are-placed-before-me.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Primary care: I love the variety and the intimacy of the problems that are placed before me</a>." (<a href= "https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/08/primary-care-i-love-the-variety-and-the-intimacy-of-the-problems-that-are-placed-before-me.html">https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/08/primary-care-i-love-the-variety-and-the-intimacy-of-the-problems-that-are-placed-before-me.html</a>)</p>