Family medicine in Japan

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Editor's Note: The fact that Japan has the longest life expectancy in the world does not suggest that they need to revamp their whole sys¬ tem and develop a new system of educating family physicians. How¬ ever, maybe the family physicians can make the statistics even better. I find the volume ofvisits fascinating. When I visited Korea in 1993, there were also high volumes of visits. The family physician I visited at the university saw 90 patients in a morning and was considered slow. One private practitioner said he saw 300 patients a day. The numbers are high because they are paid a per visit rate by the government that has not changed in many years. The patients seemed to accept the short visits. There are no telephone conversations or mailed laboratory results— you must come to the physician. Patients are often seen daily for mi¬ nor illnesses. Patients usually do not get undressed, and some physi¬ cians have individuals who write their notes for them while they are in the room. Psychosocial issues get short shrift. Meanwhile, the expectations and time per visit in the United States are increasing. Marjorie A. Bowman, MD, MPA

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: