The study, led by University of Michigan Health System, researched the implications of redistributing chronic disease care workloads between specialists and primary care physicians in the PCMH model.
They found specialists spend significant time — more than 650,000 work weeks collectively — on routine follow-up care for patients with common chronic conditions, including asthma, diabetes and lower back pain.
The study proposes it may be more cost-effective if this care was delegated to primary care physicians, but that would require either thousands of them or an extra three weeks per year from those currently in the workforce.
PCMH is a team-based model of coordinated care that either provides for all of patients’ healthcare needs or arranges to do so by collaborating with other healthcare professionals. The model offers other potential benefits including less fragmentation of care, minimization of redundant tests and services and performance-based payment.
Read the UM release on the study on the primary care home model.
Read more about hospitals and physicians:
–High-Performance Networks on the Rise Despite Physicians’ Uncertainty on Methodology
–Including Specialists in Pay-for-Performance Presents Challenges
–Study Finds Work Hours for Physicians Declined Steadily Over Past Decade
