Team Based Care
Family physician Peter Anderson has found an excellent way to improve care, increase revenue, and boost patient volume, without burning out the physician or sacrificing quality. After reading “An effective way to use assistants ” [Aug. 3,2007 "Medical Economics"], my wife and I visited the doctor’s office. We were very impressed by the quality and efficiency of his practice, and his patients and staff love the system.
Our own practice is one of 36 demonstration practices nationwide in the American Academy of Family Physicians’ TransforMed study. We think his team approach to practice represents a necessary and desired improvement to the way medicine is practiced. It allows the doctor to concentrate on decision-making rather than on data gathering.
Our practice is already adopting Dr. Anderson’s methodology. We hope to take this one step further when our EHR software, eClinicalWorks, completes integration of Instant Medical History into its Patient Portal
software. Patients would complete their histories at home, nurses would clarify any vagueness, and doctors would move quickly to the exam and decision-making.
The future of medicine depends on visionary doctors, such as Dr. Anderson, who put in the hard work of testing and refining good ideas.
Bill Harrington, MD
Sandy Harrington, RN
Midlothian, VA