Page 18 - Christiana Care Focus November 2018

More than 400 Christiana Care primary-care employees gather at groundbreaking retreat
The new face of primary care
It’s not uncommon to spot primary care providers, medical assistants and nurses setting up their workstations and reviewing the patient schedule at 7:30 a.m. But on Sept. 12, the multidisciplinary members of Christiana Care Health System’s primary-care practices weren’t preparing to see patients. Their offices were closed for the morning. Instead, they were attending an unprecedented event in the Delaware Park clubhouse. The purpose: reimagine primary care.
“Those of us in the room today represent the future of Christiana Care,” said Christine Donohue-Henry, M.D., MBA, chief medical officer, Community Care. “The future of health care is the ambulatory side—the outpatient services that are provided in our
Tcommunity.”
he crowd of more than 400 represented all facets of a primary-care practice, from office assistants to behavioral health
consultants to clinicians. They collaborated to discuss a health care delivery model that integrates resources across the continuum.
The new model is needed as Christiana Care seeks to increase access to primary care through new and expanded primary- care locations, digital options, centralized support services and a team-based approach to care.
“There are many people in our community who do not have good health and can’t get the care that they need,” she said. “Many private, primary-care clinicians have retired or gone into concierge practice. Sometimes the wait is four, five and six months for a new patient appointment. We need to grow to care for the patients in our community,” Dr. Donohue-Henry said.
Meanwhile, health care costs are increasing. “Primary care is one of the most effective means to manage costs long term,” she said. “If we can get a patient’s diabetes under control, we can hopefully prevent the heart attack and ICU stays 10 years from now. If we have a young mom who is struggling with depression, getting the care she needs has an impact not only on her but also on her family. There’s a lot of good that we can do in primary care.”
Accessible and Available
While Christiana Care is growing its physi- cal primary care network in the community, access to primary-care services isn’t limited to bricks and mortar. It includes a phone call with a medical assistant to review blood- work results or with a triage nurse to man-
Cage a child’s fever, Dr. Donohue-Henry said.
hristiana Care will pull some tasks out of the primary-care practice and place them in a centralized support service,
which will boost efficiency and allow health care providers to spend more valuable face-to-face time with patients, said Amanda McMullen, Ph.D., vice president, Ambulatory Quality and Safety and Primary Care. The centralized support operation, which is expected to launch in 2019, may handle such responsibilities as referrals and prior authorizations.
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