Top-performing medical clinics: Here are four reasons for their success

The most accessible clinics, which managed to offer up to 100,000 appointments to their patients in the last year, have implemented several common measures to improve their efficiency. Here are the main ones:

• Also read: Discover the 10 medical clinics that have given the most appointments over the past year

• Also read: Small revolution at the District Medical clinic: less paperwork, terminals for health insurance cards and appointments posted every 10 minutes

At least 20 doctors

Due to hospital or CHSLD obligations and holidays, a large pool of family doctors is needed to offer so many appointments.

"That's what it will take in 2025. There must always be around ten of them on duty, every day," calculates ^Dr. Georges Zaarour of District Medical in Montreal.

"There's strength in numbers," says ^Dr. André Berdnikoff of the Pierre-Boucher Medical Clinic in Longueuil, which has 44 physicians. This means there are always doctors there providing follow-ups, emergency walk-ins, or offering quick appointments for clinic patients whose doctor is absent, for example.

Many nurses

Most medical clinics have nurses in charge of triage, asking initial questions about the reason for the appointment and taking vital signs. Provided by the government to GMFs, they allow doctors to be more efficient. However, the number of these nurses remains insufficient, which is why many clinics hire their own teams.

^Dr. Jean-Daniel Lalande of the Mieux-Être Medical Center emphasizes that nurses are present even on weekends, which motivates doctors to work on these days.

In Longueuil, ^Dr. André Berdnikoff indicates that some colleagues and he himself pay out of their own pockets for a nursing assistant to support them.

Effective platforms

No more wasted time waiting on the phone for an appointment; clinics that offer more than 100,000 appointments per year have fast online appointment systems.

Many clinics now offer scheduled appointments at various times throughout the day. Wellness centers have their own "patient portal" where you can book appointments up to two months in advance with your doctor.

Operating in a more traditional way, the Pierre-Boucher Medical Clinic deploys a small army of telephone operators and secretaries for patients who still prefer to call.

Several rooms at the same time and specialists nearby

More and more clinics are being designed to have more consulting rooms than doctors. As a result, there is always a turnover of patients ready to be examined.

The buildings also house outpatient services provided by specialists, and they share the same office space. "We know each other, we pick up the phone, and the patient is seen. It's a fantastic convenience," says ^Dr. Berdnikoff.