Saint Joseph's Medical Group seeks to add a total of 80 primary care and advance practice providers to its ranks, with the understanding that no matter the future model of healthcare in the U.S., primary care physicians are a patient's first stop - their ‘medical home.'
"Trying to foresee what health care is going to look like going forward, no matter what does or doesn't come out of the Obama administration's plan, primary care plays a huge role in the coordination of care for patients, " said Saint Joseph's Medical Group Executive Vice President, Maureen DeBlois. "We will likely see a return of something that looks like capitation, where the hospitals, primary care physicians and specialists are incentivized to work together on a particular episode of care for a patient, and you can do that more successfully with an integrated primary care group."
Problems exist within the current primary care arena, though. "Statistics show a shrinking number of primary care medical school graduates, both in an absolute sense and relative to population growth," said DeBlois. "Also, due to spiraling costs and reimbursement issues, many existing primary care physicians have stopped taking Medicare and Medicaid, or have begun concierge-type practices, which has left a group of patients, in effect, medically homeless."
In successfully reaching its target goal, Saint Joseph's Medical Group will be able to provide a home for both these displaced patients and for those primary care physicians who don't want to continue facing such economic versus clinical dilemmas.
There are clinical advantages for primary care physicians to join such a practice model. Saint Joseph's Medical Group physicians are part of an integrated electronic medical record (EMR) system that often is too costly for primary care physicians to afford independently. The EMR system is connected with Saint Joseph's Hospital and information flows quickly from within, such as the results of diagnostic tests, thereby helping eliminate unnecessary testing and reducing costs of care.
Saint Joseph's Medical Group also offers its patients and physicians the shared benefits of a ‘one-stop-shop,' where consultation and diagnostics are both conveniently located on the hospital's campus.
The practice is physician-governed by an executive committee and is a separate entity of Saint Joseph's Health System. " We recognize that running a practice isn't like running a hospital, which is why we are a separate entity, " said DeBlois, "We don't run the practice as a department of the hospital, but instead support an entrepreneurial, not dictatorial, spirit."
Saint Joseph's Medical Group currently provides patients with both primary care and cardiovascular services in the Atlanta and Lake Oconee, Ga. areas. Cardiovascular services are offered by several renowned cardiologists, who are members of Saint Joseph's Heart and Vascular Institute.
