Hi everyone, I'm looking for advice on something I have always struggled with and should already know by now. I'm an ANP who worked in a clinic setting for several years, and now I do medical disability evaluations as an independent contractor. I only have an hour with patients to complete a full one-time evaluation, and that is all I am getting paid for. I find it very hard to reel it in when patients come in with a multitude of complaints, and even though I try to tell them to give me typically their top 3 problems, it still becomes overwhelming, and I find that I run way over the time I have. I explicitly tell people I only have 30 minutes to gather a history/ROS, and then 30 minutes to do a physical, but when someone comes in with several problems ranging from cardiac to pulmonary to musculoskeletal to everything in-between, I feel as though I have to address each one with some level of adequacy, and by the time I'm done I've probably made only $5 an hour. I have difficulty leaving out details that in all reality probably aren't all that important, and my notes end up long and wordy. If someone is a talker, forget about it! I used to struggle with this very much in primary care, telling patients I could only address 1-2 problems per visit and then going down the rabbit hole when they start complaining about everything. Often times people are late for the appointment too, which leaves me even less time to get it all done. Anyone have any advice for how to manage a patient with several problems that need to be addressed during a one-time, hour long visit? It's hard to leave things out when I want to make sure their issues are well-documented, but then I start drowning.
Thanks in advance!
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Hi everyone, I'm looking for advice on something I have always struggled with and should already know by now. I'm an ANP who worked in a clinic setting for several years, and now I do medical disability evaluations as an independent contractor. I only have an hour with patients to complete a full one-time evaluation, and that is all I am getting paid for. I find it very hard to reel it in when patients come in with a multitude of complaints, and even though I try to tell them to give me typically their top 3 problems, it still becomes overwhelming, and I find that I run way over the time I have. I explicitly tell people I only have 30 minutes to gather a history/ROS, and then 30 minutes to do a physical, but when someone comes in with several problems ranging from cardiac to pulmonary to musculoskeletal to everything in-between, I feel as though I have to address each one with some level of adequacy, and by the time I'm done I've probably made only $5 an hour. I have difficulty leaving out details that in all reality probably aren't all that important, and my notes end up long and wordy. If someone is a talker, forget about it! I used to struggle with this very much in primary care, telling patients I could only address 1-2 problems per visit and then going down the rabbit hole when they start complaining about everything. Often times people are late for the appointment too, which leaves me even less time to get it all done. Anyone have any advice for how to manage a patient with several problems that need to be addressed during a one-time, hour long visit? It's hard to leave things out when I want to make sure their issues are well-documented, but then I start drowning.
Thanks in advance!