Group Medical Visits and Clinician Wellbeing

Abstract

There is strong evidence for clinical benefits of group medical visits (GMVs) (also known as shared medical appointments) for prenatal care, diabetes, chronic pain, and a wide range of other conditions. GMVs can increase access to integrative care while providing additional benefits including increased clinician-patient contact time, cost savings, and support with prevention and self-management of chronic conditions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many clinical sites are experimenting with new models of care delivery including virtual GMVs using telehealth. Little research has focused on which clinicians offer this type of care, how the GMV approach affects the ways they practice, and their job satisfaction. Workplace-based interventions have been shown to decrease burnout in individual physicians. We argue that more research is needed to understand if GMVs should be considered among these workplace-based interventions, given their potential benefits to clinician wellbeing. GMVs can benefit clinician wellbeing in multiple ways, including: (1) Extended time with patients; (2) Increased ability to provide team-based care; (3) Understanding patients’ social context and addressing social determinants of health. GMVs can be implemented in a variety of settings in many different ways depending on institutional context, patient needs and clinician preferences. We suggest that GMV programs with adequate institutional support may be beneficial for preventing burnout and improving retention among clinicians and health care teams more broadly, including in integrative health care. Just as group support benefits patients struggling with loneliness and social isolation, GMVs can help address these and other concerns in overwhelmed clinicians.

Addressing the ACGME Competency of Communicating with the Public through the Use of TEDx Talks

“…This aspect is particularly important in group medical visits, which are multiple patient medical visits that involve health education and peer support. 8 In this group setting, clinicians facilitate discussions, drawing on the patients' lived experiences. Competence in "work[ing] effectively as a member or leader of a health care team" and "demonstrating humanism and cultural proficiency" clearly have become core skills that the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education assigned to it 15 years ago.…”

“…In addition to knowledge dissemination, the ability to influence attitudes and change behaviors is another critical component of public communication. This aspect is particularly important in group medical visits, which are multiple patient medical visits that involve health education and peer support 8 . In this group setting, clinicians facilitate discussions, drawing on the patients’ lived experiences.…”

The Calm after the Storm: A State-of-the-Art Review about Recommendations Put Forward during the COVID-19 Pandemic to Improve Chronic Pain Management

“…• Evaluate whether the use of synchronous videoconferencing to deliver pain management programs is worthwhile, and if so, how to develop, deliver, and measure outcomes of such programs [38]. • Implementation of group virtual care to benefit patients struggling with loneliness and social isolation, in addition to helping address concerns in overwhelmed clinicians [39].…”

“…To address this gap, recommendations were made to provide the opportunity to offer non-pharmacological treatments in a virtual manner. The use of synchronous videoconferencing to deliver pain management programs [38] and the implementation of virtual support groups have been recommended [39]. These group meetings allowed patients to break the isolation brought on by the pandemic [39].…”

Addressing food insecurity and chronic conditions in community health centres: protocol of a quasi-experimental evaluation of Recipe4Health

“…Group medical visits bring multiple patients together for health education and peer support and also offer the opportunity for one-on-one time with primary care providers. Benefits of the group medical visit have included improved clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction with healthcare, and clinician well-being 20 21…”