Ha! I missed the sarcasm at first! Yep we are totally not needed. Too funny just today had one who had seen a telemed dr who diagnosed an ear infection. Had mom hold the phone up to ear and teledoc said they could see red. I actually burst out laughing. The mom was quite dubious and brought them to see us. She only used teledoc because it is quick and “free” with her insurance plan.
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Sadly, what we’re losing with today’s version of health insurance are long-term relationships with doctors who really know us and our families. As a child, I saw my pediatrician until I went to college. My sister saw the same pediatrician. We always saw him and not someone else, not a teledoc or a nurse practitioner at CVS. Insurance changes, doctors fall out of network and new ones need to be obtained. Doctors leave practices for one reason or another. Families relocate to new cities and have to seek out new practices.
My kids have been lucky to have had the same pediatrician since birth. We have followed her to a couple of different practices, and she has remained in practice even through having her own children. She knows us very well and always asks me what I think about any given medical issue they’re having - what my instincts say - and takes that into consideration. She is great with my kids - my college kid can message her from school with any medical issue via the medical practice portal, and she always responds quickly. My youngest turns 21 in a couple of days and is very sad to be aging out.
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In addition to all of the above, this is what my area is sorely lacking. I don’t know of a single office here that uses mychart or will answer a message. Instead you have to call the office, get transferred and put on hold, ask your question to a nurse. It’s a 50-50 chance if they’ll get back to you that day or even at all. And then another 50-50 chance that they answer the question you asked. If not, or if you have another follow-up question, except an answer maybe in 1-2 days.
Nothing is easy. Some offices don’t even have online payment options still.
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I feel fortunate that all three of our kids had the same pediatrician, from birth through college. We very rarely had to see another doctor. He was a gem.
I used to see my regular PCP when I was sick. Now I hardly ever do, it’s another doctor I don’t know. 
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The doctors offices now seem to routinely take a patients’ temp before taking them back. Since unfortunately haven’t had a temp, I am not sure what would happen if it was elevated. But there are many other things other than covid that cause an elevated temp. Bur it’s understandable for some to exercise caution.
I feel very fortunate to have good docs who know me well. Answering endless Qs with an urgent care doc about my medical history and allergies was time consuming and wasteful for me and the poor MD.
Fortunately since then, I’ve been able to be fit into my lung doc’s office’s very busy schedule anytime I’m ill and in need of help. I started seeing most of my docs about 2916 when my prior med team all retired, coincidentally.
I feel like my current team knows me pretty well, including my sometimes unusual side effects from treatment and that I often need a longer course of antibiotics for infections.
My old internist was my md for decades as well as my folks’ md and most of my siblings. He was great until he started having his own healthcare challenges.
My son left his pediatrician when he was 26.
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My son at 31 is still seeing the adolescent psychiatrist he first went to when he was 18. I’m very thankful for that man.
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We’ve been very fortunate that my kids have rarely needed to see a doctor for more than their yearly sports physical. For the occasional case of pinkeye or strep, always at night or on a weekend, we’ve used urgent care/CVS. Sports injuries have been handled by the ortho or PT. Our urgent care is fantastic, and before I found our current place we went there for a couple of things. One night a kid took a hard fall playing ball and was in so much pain that we were concerned there was a fracture. We had just switched insurance and I didn’t have the new info so they were very concerned that I would need to pay for everything. With an X-ray (they send them out to review and then do treatment based on what they are told) we were out for under $200…I’m sure it would have cost 4x that in the ER.
We recently switched some of the family to a PMA. Their approach is similar to what I remember from my childhood. They reserve mornings for immunocompromised patients (whether it’s because it’s a young baby or other causes) before the germy get there. Then they schedule non-contagious visits (sports physicals, well visits, or non-infections medical problems). Potentially contagious patients are seen at certain times of day - they try to have some appointments every day but keep them at a time when they minimize exposing other people. I wouldn’t be surprised if they do some things over the phone, but they definitely see sick patients.
What does “PMA” mean in this context?
Private medical association. You have to pay to join, but it’s something like $25/person/year. Basically it affects their regulation. While the majority of what they do is ‘normal’ (they’ve recommended checking thyroid and vitamin levels, for instance), they are willing to try alternative treatments (supplements before a prescription for non-life-threatening issues, etc).
They also add new services as they see a need rather than ‘staying in a lane’. They’ve added a psychiatric nurse because they had patients needing help with meds/treatment for ADHD/depression, etc, beyond what the others were comfortable with, and recently there was a note about somebody being trained on diaphragm fitting because patients were requesting non-hormonal birth control and there weren’t many doctors locally who still did it.
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