With primary care physicians increasingly facing unrealistic demands on our time,^1,2 many of us are looking for ways to reclaim precious minutes in our day without reducing meaningful time with patients. A scheduling model that our practice refers to as “showtime” scheduling could be part of the solution.

WHAT IS SHOWTIME SCHEDULING?

Showtime scheduling involves creating two distinct start times for each visit:

• An “official” start time for general scheduling, indicating when the patient will arrive and clinic staff will begin the visit,

• Another start time (15 minutes later, or another preferred interval), indicating when the physician will enter the examination room — “showtime.” In our practice, the physician portion is either scheduled for 15 minutes or 30 minutes, depending on the type of visit.

This approach gives clinic staff dedicated time to handle preparatory tasks such as verifying insurance, updating demographic information, verifying medications, identifying care gaps such as overdue screenings or vaccines, updating quality measures, and obtaining the initial history of present illness (HPI) without cutting into the dedicated patient-physician interaction time. This gives staff sufficient time for administrative tasks, lets physicians focus on medical decision making, and helps everyone feel less rushed.