LEAWOOD, Kan. – Daily work with U.S. primary care practices lends a sense of what works, and what ideas or interventions will have high leverage for change in the transformative process of practice redesign. Such perspective could inform a 2014 strategy for transforming U.S. health care delivery to achieve optimal patient care, professional satisfaction and the success of primary care practices.
The following 10 trends identified by TransforMED President and CEO Bruce Bagley, MD, FAAFP, are discussed further in his year-end Report from the CEO at transformed.com:
• The Need to Change Your Stripes – Health professionals need to embrace changing roles, responsibilities and relationships with others on the team to give patients a sense that the team is connected, coordinated and working together for the best possible outcomes.
• Focus on Wellness and Prevention – More emphasis on wellness, prevention and a comprehensive approach to the everyday needs that cause people to seek medical help will be the real long-term contribution of primary care to the health of our nation and to those we try to serve.
• The Community of Care – Our communities must be able to support and promote healthy lifestyles, behavioral health and chronic illness care that foster the ability of people to function and contribute to family, work and community.
• Access Redefined – We need to redefine access so that when someone calls the health care provider, the conversation changes from a negotiation about appointment availability to a conversation that starts with, “How can we help you?”
• The Cultural, Social and Economic Context of Health – Optimum outcomes for patients must begin to incorporate the social, cultural, economic and human-relational context in which they live.
• Strategic Distribution of the Work – The part of primary care practices’ everyday work that relates to “rules-based” decision-making could and should be moved from physicians to other members of the care team.
• Care is About Relationships, Not Locations – To maximize outcomes for patients, we must promote and enhance continuous healing relationships with providers and care teams, and reduce the barriers inherent in our fragmented care system.
• Risk-Stratified Care Management – Risk-stratified care management and care coordination for those who need the most help navigating their chronic problems or the health system will be the new required competency for most primary care practices.
• Consolidation, Integration and Market Forces – Tremendous pressure for consolidation and aggregation of health care providers and services will continue near-term; integrated health systems will see the imperative to control the health care costs of their own employees and devise creative solutions that they will then bring to market.
• The Ultimate Imperative – Someone else is already succeeding in everything that you think is not possible.
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About TransforMED
The Leawood, Kan.-based TransforMED is a nonprofit, wholly owned subsidiary of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Established in 2005, TransforMED provides ongoing consultation and support to physicians as they work to implement the patient-centered medical home model of care in their practices. TransforMED is an active member of primary care communities and recognizes and supports the unique value that primary care offers to patients and the health care system. TransforMED shares and supports the idealism and altruism of primary care physicians and the strong commitment to their communities and patients through continuing patient relationships and independent decision making. TransforMED offers practices both products and services, including consultation and advice on implementing the patient centered medical home model. To learn more about TransforMED, visit www.transformed.com. Follow us on Twitter and find us on Facebook.
