Patient flow's impact on the practice

For 15 years, I unquestioningly followed my organization’s standard process for patient flow. Not anymore. The patient arrives at the check-in window to register and sits down to wait. A medical assistant (MA) shows up holding a chart, calls the patient’s name, and walks them into the clinical area. First stop: the dreaded scale for a weight. Next, into the exam room for vital signs: blood pressure, pulse and temperature. Now, the MA barrages the patient with questions, typing furiously into an electronic system for the next five to 10 minutes or more, depending on the historian. Many of these questions will turn out to be completely irrelevant, already in the chart, or repeated by the physician. Finally, the MA leaves the patient alone in the exam room to wait — and sometimes wait, and wait — until the doctor finally rushes in.