ANNUAL REPORT 2007: Thoughts on Health Care Reform
By Suzanne Spencer, MD, family physician and Factoria Medical Center chief
Just over a year ago I was burned out as a family doctor. I put in for retirement.
Yet here I am — my burnout gone — thanks to a pilot program we call Medical Home. Not only has this thoughtful model of care reinvigorated me as a physician, it has also turned our medical center into a champion of team-based care. I believe this approach could be part of what eventually fixes America's health care mess.
The Medical Home model reimagines the way we practice family medicine. In the past year our medical center has improved clinical quality and performance, improved satisfaction levels of physicians and staff, and reduced unnecessary patient visits to the emergency department and urgent care.
Medical Home promises to demonstrate a premise vital to Group Health's philosophy: that if you improve the quality of care you provide, you also will lower costs.
It all started when Group Health leaders encouraged us to ask, "What would be the perfect patient experience?"
We thought hard, then hired two more physicians, which reduced the number of patients in each doctor's care from 2,200 to 1,800. This gave each physician more desk time — enabling us to respond more quickly when patients e-mail or phone. We made appointment times longer. We added group visits for people with chronic conditions.
We encourage all of our patients to contact their care team round the clock. We don't wait for a patient to come in; we study lists of patients and find ways that reach out to those who don't visit us routinely, but would benefit from regular contact.
Obviously, as this happens with more patients, the quality of everyone's care and health only gets better.
Financially, this is what we're seeing: Despite the expense of those new physicians, our preliminary evaluation shows these costs were recouped by reduced services in other parts of the system.
We're starting to prove that when patients get more care from their personal physicians, they need less care elsewhere — in the specialist's office, in the emergency department, in the hospital.
Over time, we believe this model of care will improve the health of our members and save money for Group Health, for our patients, and for health plan purchasers. It seems precisely what our community, and our nation, so desperately needs.
"I believe the Medical Home model of care could be part of what eventually fixes America's health care mess," : says Dr. Suzanne Spencer, shown left, with long-time patient, Gary Pollock, executive director of The Moyer Foundation.
Suzanne Spencer, MD, has been Factoria Medical Center chief for more than 10 years, and since early 2007 has led her colleagues and staff as they developed the Medical Home model into a real-world pilot program. Dr. Spencer joined Group Health in 1980.
