A Montreal walk-in clinic is doing something pretty cool and hopefully the idea gets picked up by hospitals across the country. Sitting and waiting for hours to be diagnosed by a doctor can be a long haul, up to several hours, mainly caused by lack of funding and staff. Once you check in you then proceed to wait in a room with all the other sick people, just staring at each other.
At the MDCM walk-in clinic on St. Jacques St. West has implemented a phone service where people can get notified via text or voicemail of when a doctor will see them – within a hour! Patients will have to pay $3 per visit, but this gives them the flexibility to leave the clinic without missing their spot in line.
Sara Michaels, manager of the MDCM clinic said “We’ve had this system in place for only three weeks, but the patients are much less stressed, and we’re much more organized. The patients gain back their freedom. They don’t have to wait for four or five hours in a waiting room full of sick people. Instead, they can take a number, and then they can go out and do their groceries or whatever, and the system will alert them to come back. In a sense, it’s like coming in and asking for an appointment later in the day, something we couldn’t do before.”
The clinic apparently doesn’t make any money off the service (I think they should as it’s a great idea), all the collected cash goes towards keeping the automated phone system working smoothly.
3 bucks is certainly worth escaping a waiting room for a few hours. What do you think the chances of the Government rolling this service out in other health care facilities/hospitals? Slim?
Via: Montreal Gazette
