Every patient is unique, with some common basic and measurable features and parameters.  And for a couple of decades now, healthcare has professed to be patient-centered.

But the prevailing culture of “quality” (and the reality of getting paid for what you do) has us spending at least half our time documenting for outsiders, who are non-clinicians, the substance and value of our patient interactions.

That means our patients get half of our attention and others get half.

But of course, if you really wanted to be patient-centered, you’d have to ask what patients actually care about, like their blood pressure or their cholesterol, their anxiety or their sore knees.