So Many Patients, So Little Time: Shared Medical Appointments Offer Solution (Video)

How can you see more patients in the same length workweek? Cleveland Clinic internist Marianne Sumego, MD, started testing one method, Shared Medical Appointments (SMAs), more than 15 years ago.

Today she and her team have established a model for the group visits, now being used by physicians throughout Cleveland Clinic. For the past six years, Cleveland Clinic SMA programs and visit volumes have increased 30 percent year to year.

“It’s a dynamic approach,” says Dr. Sumego, Director of Shared Medical Appointments at Cleveland Clinic. “Patients have experiences to share and information to offer each other. They may offer an answer that even the physician doesn’t come up with because they’re living with the condition and working through it.”

SMAs increase patient engagement, she says. And the more patients are engaged, the more likely they are to implement necessary changes.

Patient feedback has helped fine-tune Cleveland Clinic’s SMA model. And satisfaction has been high. Patients return for another SMA 85 to 90 percent of the time.

Nutrition, diabetes and weight management all benefit from SMAs, says Dr. Sumego. But she also sees potential for more use in chronic disease, hospital discharge and other areas.

“When you have an educated patient, you lower the cost of medical care,” she says. “They take better care of themselves. The prevention is there. And it’s much easier to take care of someone in the preventative phase rather than the disease state.”