Find a Physician Using Speed Dating

For a long time, speed dating has become a popular and fun way to get to know a lot of people in a short amount of time and to determine who you would like to go out with on a real date. Now certain organizations are taking that approach to people who would like to find a physician as well. The program, now beginning in places around the country, including Texas, takes ten or fifteen potential patients and puts them in a room with a corresponding number of doctors. There may be a focused specialty (for instance, patients looking for OB/GYNs) or it may be for the purpose of finding a general practitioner. The patients and doctors are seated across from each other in pairs and the process begins.

When seated across from one another, the patients and doctors have a limited amount of time to describe themselves. The doctors will take this time to discuss their experience, education, and their philosophy on practicing medicine. The patients, in turn, will talk about any health problems they might have, what forms of payment they are most likely to use, and what they are looking for when they set out to find a physician. When the time limit is up (usually around five minutes), the patients rotate seats and do it again with another doctor.

The system was set up by marketers looking to help local doctors expand their practice. Marketing and advertising can be a tricky business for many doctors and owners of clinics. You can’t use many of the proven techniques in the advertising world. You have to maintain a forced professionalism or risk looking like a shyster. Many of these provisions were in place for lawyers, but they have long dropped away. As a result, many people look at personal injury lawyers as ambulance chasers and a great deal of the esteem has left the profession.

Of course, it offers a wonderful opportunity for the patients as well. When someone normally wants to find a physician, they are stuck asking friends or simply picking someone at random out of the phone book. They may have to endure several tepid appointments before they can find someone they really like and trust. Programs like the speed dating system allow patients to get a feel for a number of different doctors, saving an enormous amount of time and money. It is still to be seen if this system catches on in other parts of the country.