Flu acute clinic in a small town
Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:46 am
Hi Shannon,
I got the idea from a comment Will Taylor made at his recent seminar in
Chicago. He said he includes a message on his answering machine that says "if
you are patient of mine and want to be seen today, you can come in without an
appointment between 4 and 5 p.m."
My schedule isn't quite predictable enough to do that because I have
practices in both Menomonie, WI where I live (population 15,000) and St. Louis Park,
MN where I first started in practice (population 3.5 million in that metro
area). They are about 75 miles apart and I'm in St. Louis Park 1-2 days each
week.
I would only do the acute clinic in Menomonie because I'm there most of the
time.
At this point I'm thinking of scheduling my time so I'm in Wisconsin on
Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. I would do the acute clinic on those
days. If someone is sick Tuesdays or Thursdays, well, I'm sorry, but that's
the breaks.
The next issue is to figure out how much paperwork I want people to fill out
when they come to the acute clinic. At this point I would have them do an
abbreviated health history form, sign a form stating they know I'm not a
doctor and don't diagnose and prescribe and get contact information from them.
What to charge is the next issue. For my patients, I charge $10 for the
acute phone call. If they need to call back during that acute for another
remedy, there is no further charge for the call, I only charge if I need to give
them another remedy.
I know that is really cheap, but I want them to call me rather than run to
the doc. And if the cold and flu bugs are really flying around, I can do 5-6
calls per hour.
But I want to charge more for non-patients, probably in the range of $50
plus the remedy because these people will take more time. I'll send them to the
local food co-op to get most of the remedies rather than stocking acute
remedies deeply in my office.
One thing I'm hoping is that people who come in for acutes will then come
back for the constitutional work. To encourage this I may credit part of their
acute consult payments toward the constitutional fee, if they come in within
a certain amount of time.
So this is my thinking so far.
I would really welcome feedback on this plan.
Am I setting myself up for trouble or to be able to reach out to people?
What have people found works where they live and practice?
Thanks in advance,
Marybeth
As an aside, I did start a consumer study group here in Menomonie last
winter, they have 8-12 people who come regularly to the group. I was very clear
that I wouldn't lead or teach it but I would be willing to come and talk to
them if they wanted to invite me. It is working out well. They are not yet an
NCH-affiliated study group, but I keep encouraging that.
I have offered to the study group members the opportunity to sit in on the
acute clinic to observe acute prescribing, since that is what they are
studying. It looks like we might be about to work that out.
Then, if the worst happens and we really get hit by the flu, I will have
people trained to assist me in treating our community.
Which would be SO COOL.
MBM
In a message dated 10/14/04 5:26:08 PM Central Daylight Time,
shannonnelson@tds.net writes:
Hi Marybeth,
I also would love to hear how (or whether) folks do this. I think that any
non-licensed prescribers in the US will have to be very careful about the
"practicing medicine without a license" issue... Personally I wouldn't
worry about prescribing for people I know well and can trust to be in touch
with me as needed, but esp. with people I am less well connected to, I'd
want to be very careful about explaining that if this or that happens they
*must* call a doctor -- even tho it might pain me to say that, I wouldn't
want to leave either myself or the patient open to unnecessary risk if
anything went wrong.
The issues of giving aspirin and param, er, what I know as Tylenol, and the
role of fever, and proper supportive measures for a sick person, I think are
areas where patient education would go a very long way. (I keep fantasizing
about starting a study group, and that would be one of my big drums to
bang!) I'm thinking we should keep little files of articles such as the
ones Sheri and others have sent, to pass along to clients and others.
What have your thoughts been so far about how you would set this up and put
your name out?
Shannon
on 10/14/04 12:14 PM, Homeopathinmn@aol.com at Homeopathinmn@aol.com wrote:
Marybeth Buchele-Moseman
Professional Homeopath
1202 N. Broadway, Suite 3
Menomonie, WI 54751
715-231-6068
and
3601 Park Center Blvd. Suite 305
St. Louis Park, MN 55416
phone: 952-933-6068
fax: 952-253-6068
website: _www.healthnaturally.biz_ (http://www.healthnaturally.biz/)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
I got the idea from a comment Will Taylor made at his recent seminar in
Chicago. He said he includes a message on his answering machine that says "if
you are patient of mine and want to be seen today, you can come in without an
appointment between 4 and 5 p.m."
My schedule isn't quite predictable enough to do that because I have
practices in both Menomonie, WI where I live (population 15,000) and St. Louis Park,
MN where I first started in practice (population 3.5 million in that metro
area). They are about 75 miles apart and I'm in St. Louis Park 1-2 days each
week.
I would only do the acute clinic in Menomonie because I'm there most of the
time.
At this point I'm thinking of scheduling my time so I'm in Wisconsin on
Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. I would do the acute clinic on those
days. If someone is sick Tuesdays or Thursdays, well, I'm sorry, but that's
the breaks.
The next issue is to figure out how much paperwork I want people to fill out
when they come to the acute clinic. At this point I would have them do an
abbreviated health history form, sign a form stating they know I'm not a
doctor and don't diagnose and prescribe and get contact information from them.
What to charge is the next issue. For my patients, I charge $10 for the
acute phone call. If they need to call back during that acute for another
remedy, there is no further charge for the call, I only charge if I need to give
them another remedy.
I know that is really cheap, but I want them to call me rather than run to
the doc. And if the cold and flu bugs are really flying around, I can do 5-6
calls per hour.
But I want to charge more for non-patients, probably in the range of $50
plus the remedy because these people will take more time. I'll send them to the
local food co-op to get most of the remedies rather than stocking acute
remedies deeply in my office.
One thing I'm hoping is that people who come in for acutes will then come
back for the constitutional work. To encourage this I may credit part of their
acute consult payments toward the constitutional fee, if they come in within
a certain amount of time.
So this is my thinking so far.
I would really welcome feedback on this plan.
Am I setting myself up for trouble or to be able to reach out to people?
What have people found works where they live and practice?
Thanks in advance,
Marybeth
As an aside, I did start a consumer study group here in Menomonie last
winter, they have 8-12 people who come regularly to the group. I was very clear
that I wouldn't lead or teach it but I would be willing to come and talk to
them if they wanted to invite me. It is working out well. They are not yet an
NCH-affiliated study group, but I keep encouraging that.
I have offered to the study group members the opportunity to sit in on the
acute clinic to observe acute prescribing, since that is what they are
studying. It looks like we might be about to work that out.
Then, if the worst happens and we really get hit by the flu, I will have
people trained to assist me in treating our community.
Which would be SO COOL.
MBM
In a message dated 10/14/04 5:26:08 PM Central Daylight Time,
shannonnelson@tds.net writes:
Hi Marybeth,
I also would love to hear how (or whether) folks do this. I think that any
non-licensed prescribers in the US will have to be very careful about the
"practicing medicine without a license" issue... Personally I wouldn't
worry about prescribing for people I know well and can trust to be in touch
with me as needed, but esp. with people I am less well connected to, I'd
want to be very careful about explaining that if this or that happens they
*must* call a doctor -- even tho it might pain me to say that, I wouldn't
want to leave either myself or the patient open to unnecessary risk if
anything went wrong.
The issues of giving aspirin and param, er, what I know as Tylenol, and the
role of fever, and proper supportive measures for a sick person, I think are
areas where patient education would go a very long way. (I keep fantasizing
about starting a study group, and that would be one of my big drums to
bang!) I'm thinking we should keep little files of articles such as the
ones Sheri and others have sent, to pass along to clients and others.
What have your thoughts been so far about how you would set this up and put
your name out?
Shannon
on 10/14/04 12:14 PM, Homeopathinmn@aol.com at Homeopathinmn@aol.com wrote:
Marybeth Buchele-Moseman
Professional Homeopath
1202 N. Broadway, Suite 3
Menomonie, WI 54751
715-231-6068
and
3601 Park Center Blvd. Suite 305
St. Louis Park, MN 55416
phone: 952-933-6068
fax: 952-253-6068
website: _www.healthnaturally.biz_ (http://www.healthnaturally.biz/)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]