Group Medical Appointments: A Step-by-Step Guide for Health Professionals

Group medical appointments (GMAs) are customized, extended medical appointments with a patient’s own doctor and a behavioral health professional. Patients served best by GMAs are those with chronic conditions who require extensive monitoring, support, and follow up. Group Medical Appointments offers medical group managers, private practice clinicians, nurse executives, and behavioral health professionals vital information for increasing patients’ and health professionals’ satisfaction and level of care. This must-have resource details the plethora of possibilities afforded by group medical appointments, including a wider range of support, greater focus on the individual’s care, as well as more efficient, cost-effective treatment—essentially a "how to" book for Group or Shared Medical appointments. It includes the definition, how to use groups and all of the tools and scripts needed for a successful start-up. These groups have been found to address access issues in a practice and often leverage the providers’ productivity by 200% during the same time as individual appointments. They have been found to increase positive outcomes of chronic disease which is covered in the book. They are first and foremost a medical appointment by providing support, education and are found to be therapeutic by participants.