Wenatchee, Wash.-based Confluence Health has launched a transitional care program that leverages retired and semi-retired physicians to improve access for patients, according to a Dec. 11 article on the American Medical Association website.
Many retiring physicians at the system had expressed interest in continuing to support the community. By engaging them for transitional care, Confluence Health helped reduce wait times for new patients, Jacob Espinoza, Confluence’s primary care director, told the AMA.
The program allows physicians to meet with patients while they await their first regular primary care appointment, according to the article. The initiative has since expanded to include hospital discharge patients, with transitional care physicians now seeing them within 72 hours of discharge.
“This is especially helpful for patients with complex illnesses vulnerable to deterioration,” Randal Moseley, MD, a retired hospitalist, told the AMA. “Without the transitional care option, seeing a primary care physician as a new patient could otherwise take weeks. Delays of this magnitude in care continuity would increase poor outcomes and readmission rates.”
In addition to improving patient access, the program has helped full-time physicians reduce their patient loads, easing stress that can lead to burnout.
“This is a win-win-win program,” Dr. Moseley said. “It gives patients timely and expert follow-up after hospital discharge, unburdens primary care, and allows late-career physicians the pleasure of meaningful part-time work.”
The model also supports physicians who are not ready to fully retire. Health system physician CEOs told Becker’s in April that many physicians who are late in their careers are interested in staying involved.
“They want to continue to participate — often not either administratively or clinically, but both,” said Marlon Levy, MD, CEO of Richmond, Va.-based VCU Health. “It’s incumbent upon administrative teams to understand that doctors feel like they may have more to contribute in the administrative or leadership space than they had in the past.”
