We left the employed or insurance world NOT to see 25-30 patients a day. We want to spend more time with our patients and do a better job. Nothing does this better than DPC. So how many patients should you be seeing? Well, that is up to you but here are some ideas:
- Panel close to 600. Seeing 45-60/week. 8-12 full day, 4-6 on my half.
- Work 3.5 days a week and average about 20 patients a week in summer and 30 patients a week in winter. Panel of 600
- In July I had 70 (in-person) patient encounters, and at the time I probably averaged around 160 patients in my panel, so I saw a nearly half of my panel (I’m sure there are a lot of duplicates and stuff, but that still gives you an idea). But remember, I’m early in my practice (opened April 3) and people tend to get a lot of food on their plate the first time they go to an all-you-can-eat restaurant, even though they can go back to the buffet anytime they want. Many of those appts were undoubtedly first time visits and the like. August is shaping up to be even worse. I’ve averaged nearly 8 a day this week, and if that trend holds, then I’ll see 150 this month, and right now my panel is about 180. That’s pretty rough, but again, it’s early, and in-clinic stuff will slow down as more and more people get comfortable with texting and e-mailing and not needing appts knowing I’m available if needed. I’m already seeing this trend in some patients. Also a lot of these are new people getting their kids in for well child checks and sports physicals before school starts, so I’ll slow down soon. 4 months in, and I’m also identifying my frequent flyers pretty easily. Only one has me groaning, so far.
- That number is about what I am seeing every week with a panel in the low 500s
- Panel of 245 and seeing at least 30 a week. I think this varies a ton depending on practice style and neediness of the panel.
- I still think this is the most difficult thing to project in a DPC practice. What percentage of your patients are children? Certainly, new members will be much higher utilizers typically for the first 6 to 12 months. Hopefully, more established members are on autopilot, but you always have some percentage of patients requiring frequent visits. For my experience, this is much more of a personality issue and reflective of true medical needs or Health status. On average, the 1% of panel per day has helped pretty true for me. So, even at nearly 600 patients for the past year, I rarely see more than eight clinic visits in a day.
- Along the lines of the “I’m so busy I had 3 patients in an afternoon” posts – curious what people’s average monthly visits are in terms of percentage of total panel. Thinking this is one of those issues that varies with pediatrics and general “neediness” of a population. Also more in growth phase when stabilizing new patients. Looking back at the last three months I saw between 37 and 45 visits, with a panel of 150. So 25-30%, not necessarily unique patients.
- My panel right now seems to be about 75% peds (mostly under 5yo), 25% adult.
Just curious…extrapolating this to a panel of 600 would mean 4 times as much, 150 per month, or 37-45 per week. - How many is the MOST patients you’ve seen in a day since doing DPC?
- Today is my max at 11. I’m at around 315 members…
- 13 or 14 at 540 pts
- 12 at 715 patients
- 10 at 550.
- 12 at 55
- 9 at 400
- I saw 10 and I’m at 280
- 13 at 325, but also have at least 200-300 cash FFS they do help cash flow
- 16 at 260 and I often see 10 a day 3 days a week
- 15 at 450
- 9-10 with 400 pts and that doesn’t include eVisits and emails/texts
- 8-10 with 237
- Max was 11 or 12, but generally in the 4-7 range with just under 300 patients.
- 11 at 272. 4-6 per day is the norm. I used to quote the “1% rule.”