6 Ways Concierge Medicine Helps Busy Professionals

As a busy professional, you navigate a full schedule every day. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the average full-time employee spends 8.42 hours per weekday working.

Whether you’re in the big chair or grinding out work below the C-Suite, time management can be a struggle for any busy professional.

In and around work commitments, you are probably also juggling childcare, aging parents, volunteer activities, and squeezing in a date night.

Carving out time for routine healthcare always seems to get pushed further down the list. And deciding to finally do something about those nagging fears that you could be feeling, well, that can wait, right?

Add in the wait times traditionally associated with healthcare, from appointments that are weeks in the future to sitting in lobbies or exam rooms just to spend 10 minutes (if you're lucky) with a doctor, and one thing is clear.

Busy professionals simply do not have time for inefficient healthcare.

Concierge medicine removes the barriers to a better healthcare experience that makes time management as a busy professional easier.

As a busy professional, you need two things:

1. Convenient care delivered in a timely manner. It needs to fit into, and not disrupt, your schedule.
2. Personalized care designed to keep you at peak performance. The healthier you are, the better you are.

That’s where concierge medicine can prove to be highly valuable. Switching to concierge medicine is one of several things you can do to better manage your busy life. 

As a leading concierge medicine practice since 2003, we’ve taken care of countless busy professionals and helped them manage the balancing act of company, family, and health.

From streamlining the scheduling process as much as possible to providing the time required to deliver cutting-edge care, here are six ways concierge medicine helps the time management of busy professionals.

1. Same-day or next-day appointments get you in-person care quickly.

Working through any kind of acute illness is not only miserable, but it can also damage your long-term health. If something is bothering you, you need to find the underlying cause of it.

However, one of the problems with the traditional primary care model is there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to get the care you need quickly.

You may call your doctor only to learn they can’t see you for a couple of days or even a week.

Even if they can fit you in that day, you know you’ll probably end up waiting in the lobby and then again in the exam room for at least another 30 to 45 minutes.

You don’t have the time to wait that long. Your calendar is filled with deadlines and meetings that won't budge.

Most concierge medicine practices guarantee same-day or next-day appointments. Instead of feeling worse for a few days and missing work or, at the least, being less productive, you can see your doctor quickly and get diagnosed and treated as soon as possible.

Concierge medicine eliminates the chance you’ll linger without care for multiple days and, if medication is required, can help you get better faster.

2. 24/7 access to care helps you get care after-hours, on the weekend, or while you’re traveling.

Remember that stat from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics about how much the average full-time employee works per weekday? They also estimate that the average full-time employee works 5.53 hours on weekend days.

Whether you’re leading the company or not, getting sick on the weekends, on vacation, or even when traveling for business can be highly convenient.

You’re either missing much-needed family time or you’re sitting in a hotel room missing the business meeting you traveled for, and just hoping you feel better soon. And the worst part is, it’s hard to get care away from home in traditional primary care.

But much like same-day or next-day appointments, the 24/7 access to physician care provided by concierge medicine solves that problem.

You don’t have to rely on urgent care. And you don’t have to wait until Monday morning to call the office and get an appointment. You simply get the care you need when you need it.

3. No waiting in the lobby or exam room for your appointment.

Let’s say you do manage to schedule your appointment in a timely manner. It might have taken days or weeks of planning, but you’ve managed to carve out a little bit of time in your busy schedule for a doctor’s appointment.

However, you get to your doctor’s office, and the waiting begins. You check in at the front desk and wait 15 minutes in the lobby.

Then, you get called back, see a nurse, and wait another 15 minutes for your doctor. That time you carved out on your schedule has evaporated, and you’ve got to hustle through your appointment to get back to work.

That’s not how you get the care you need.

Concierge medicine removes the hassle of waiting from the primary care experience. Your appointments are guaranteed to start on time, often within five minutes of your arrival at the office, and you won’t be left sitting in the exam room scrolling through your emails.

4. No more scheduling multiple specialist appointments.

While your primary care doctor serves as the quarterback for your care, it’s an unavoidable fact that you may need to see a specialist or two.

Maybe you need to see a cardiologist for your heart. Or you need to regularly see a dermatologist for skincare issues. Perhaps you need to see a gastroenterologist for your gut health.

There’s nothing out of the ordinary with seeing multiple specialists, but it just adds to the hassles of the healthcare experience. It’s already difficult enough to schedule an appointment and see your primary care doctor, and now you’ve also got to schedule a host of other appointments, too?

One of the main pros of concierge medicine practices is that they will often do it for you. They’ll take the lead on scheduling appointments for all your specialist care, removing that from your to-do list.

Then, after the appointment, they’ll make sure any medical records and notes make it back to your primary care doctor, so they have the most up-to-date, complete picture of your health.

And just like that, concierge medicine takes yet another thing off your plate.

5. More time with your doctor allows you to focus on the root causes that affect your long-term health.

It’s hard to get convenient care in the traditional primary care system. It’s also difficult to get the time you need with your doctor to actively focus on the root causes. 

And it’s not the doctor’s fault. They’re dealt a tough hand with overloaded panels and reliance on healthcare reimbursements. One study found that more than 25% of primary care physicians spend fewer than 12 minutes with each patient and only about 10% of physicians spend more than 25 minutes.

As a busy professional trying to manage your time, not treating the root cause can be a big problem. At best, it could lead to nagging health issues happening more often and disrupting your routine.

At worst, it could lead to a major health problem that is even more time-consuming down the road.

With concierge medicine, you get the time you need with your doctor to discuss your complete health picture, so you leave your appointment feeling confident about the future of your health plan.

6. Access to advanced physicals to identify your vulnerabilities years in advance.

We all know about the traditional annual physical. 20-30 minutes with your doctor, once per year.

But is it going deep enough to see into your health future? Are you simply getting the same tests year after year?

Most concierge medicine practices also offer a deeper level of physical with more cutting-edge tests and screenings. They are designed to peer into your health future and identify your hidden vulnerabilities years in advance. You may even be able to get your company to add an executive physical program to its benefits package.

• Is your risk of a heart attack or stroke higher than you think?
• Could you be heading down a path toward diabetes?
• Is your stress level approaching unmanageable levels?

With concierge medicine, you not only get convenient care tailored to your busy lifestyle, but you also get the cutting-edge care you need to keep you as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

Next Steps: Explore the Benefits of Concierge Medicine

If you’re a busy professional trying to figure out how to manage your workload, family, and health, concierge medicine can be a useful solution. You can remove the hassles that make managing your healthcare experience a struggle.

Sound like something that would make your life easier? Download our free Guide to Understanding Concierge to get answers to all your questions.