I just want to practice medicine and actually care for people
Not have someone constantly pushing quality metrics down my throat, not have insurance companies dictating how I practice medicine.
I’m already so sick of it all. I get that the quality measures are a big part of how we get paid, and most of the time, they really are things that need to be done for the good of the patient. But printing out our metrics and handing them to us for something different every week, ultimately makes me feel like I’m failing at my job. It’s just a number to them, they don’t care that we spent time having that conversation about how important it is to get their blood pressure under control, or their A1c down, or about their depression going into “remission,” that the patient is making progress but isn’t there yet, or that the patients themselves don’t frankly care and won’t do their part to get the numbers where they need to be for it to look like I’m doing my job right with QMs.
They don’t really care that I caught a patient who has had hep C for 8 years and the provider that first discovered it just said “follow up at next visit,” rather than calling the patient with the results, which the patient likely no showed for, and is just now hearing they have it after I reviewed the chart…and they are now dealing with cirrhosis.
They don’t care that I’ve actually built a relationship with the patient who lost all trust in the healthcare system years ago and that I am actually addressing her 80 pound unintentional weight loss over a year; she is still considered obese, so need to close that quality gap and talk about weight loss!
They really don’t even care that I actually listened to the patient who’s partner tried to strangle her last night and was one room over from her with their shared child, which ultimately led to the arrest of the partner that same day on DV charges. The patient still needs her missing HIV screening done!
It feels impossible to actually show patients that you care, address the things they want addressed, and address this long list of quality measures that are missing in a 20 minute appointment.
I’ve noticed other providers will bill a 9938x or 9939x for a problem based visit, where no preventative care was done, and often not even a full physical exam was performed. I can’t help but wonder if these metrics have become so important, the care that they are meant to enforce is being just barely skimmed over for the purpose of closing the gap, rather than actually for the proper care of the patient.
I’m only 5 months in and already feel burnt out.