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COVID-19
WHERE TO FROM HERE

More

Quality

Time

By Sheldon Gross, MD

Physicians in private practice faced a major earthquake in 2020. leave. I am now able to schedule patients within a very short period
The COVID-19 virus has affected the private practice of medicine of time. This results in people being grateful and appreciative as
in ways that I have never seen before. Most are very negative. These soon as they walk in the door. This automatically sets the stage for
have been discussed numerous times. However, as with most things, a much more positive physician/patient relationship.
there is also some positive aspect to it. As I reflect on the last two This whole environment is reminiscent of my first one or two
months, I cannot help but realize differences that I would consider years in private practice. At that time, I was excited about seeing
in most ways positive. every patient. I was in a building phase without wait times of three,
Telemedicine has been available to practitioners for many years. four, or six weeks. The enthusiasm that I felt as a physician in this
Most physicians practicing in an outpatient setting are now using first or second year of practice appears to have returned. It could
telemedicine to a much greater degree than ever before. In my ex- in some ways be considered a rejuvenating experience. With extra
perience, I had not used telemedicine at all. I now find it indispen- time, I find myself spending more minutes on the phone discussing
sable. It is helpful to both me and my patients. This is something cases with referring doctors. They are grateful for this type of feed-
that without question will continue into the future. back. I regret that at some point in my busy practice over the past
Most of my colleagues have described a fairly dramatic decrease 30 years I lost sight of how important that is. It is not only about
in patient flow. People have been told by government officials and cementing a doctor/patient relationship, it’s also about strengthen-
public announcements to stay at home and not go out. That is ex- ing a specialist-referring-doctor relationship. I call patients back
actly what has happened. I think this has decreased the number of sooner. I listen more carefully and respond to their questions and
patients who have contracted COVID-19, but has also resulted in concerns more completely.
businesses across the board being hurt, including the private practice I am hopeful that the present COVID-19 virus pandemic will be
of medicine. over quickly. I am hopeful there will never be another one like this.
I find myself valuing each individual patient to a much greater I am also hopeful that I will continue to enjoy relationships with
degree. I always valued my patients. However, the difference is I patients and physicians more and not forget or lose sight of the
now have a chance to put that into action. A lower patient volume more positive aspects of my practice as a result.
means more available time to delve into various aspects of health-
care or even just talk about people as individuals. I find my patients Sheldon Gross, MD is a board-certified specialist in Pediatric Neurology
much happier and appear more satisfied with their visit after they and is past President of the Bexar County Medical Society.

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