They've Got It All Wrong

I mean...they've got it all wrong.

Health reform....the silly alphabetical soup...ACO, PCMH, PQRI.

These things don't mean quality. Not even close. They don't mean economical. They are not about giving good care, or even about being cost effective. They are just that....a bunch of letters. Standing for obscure, unproven concepts being passed off by academics, politicians, medical societies. It's about political expediency. Ask any practicing physician. And were killing primary care.

Because what I do is not about community health. It is not about how many of my patients A1c's are below 7 or how many of my hypertensives meet certain "goals". That's all good...but it's not how I save lives, or how I cut down on hospitalizations, or how I provide economical care. I do that a different way. I use my years of training, experience, intuition, deep knowledge of my patients, and understanding of medicine to hash out a plan that sometimes works. I strive to:

-quickly separate the various causes of both common and uncommon symptoms. I try to be king of the differential diagnosis. Defining whether the 50 year old with chest pain has coronary disease, gerd, anxiety or a pulmonary embolism. Primary care is uniquely situated better then any specialty to do this because we have the broadest knowledge base and experience.

-manage chronic illnesses and titrate medications sometimes on a daily basis. Diabetes, Chf, Copd...the patients often have specialists but unless they want to speak to a nurse practitioner they call me for day to day management.

-Have end of life discussions. Every day. Over and over. When the cards are on the table the oncologist, or cardiologist, or pulmonologist have disappeared. I am the the one left talking about hospice.


And when it works...I save lives, keep people out of the hospital, and allow them to die in peace.

But now there is the collective. Soon we (not I) will be an ACO. We will be a PCMH. Swallowed into a large group and no independence. Tethered to quality indicators that mean nothing to actual patient care. Incentivized to think less about people as individuals and more about groups. Patients will be shuttled from provider to provider to meet some type of quality goal about physician availability. The paperwork will expand..and expand...and expand. And I will expend...expend more energy thinking about everything but clinical care.

Businessmen will siphon off profits to meet the needs of the whole...expensive administrative salaries. Expensive facilities to maintain...you have to feed the hospital....you have to feed the mri machine...you have to feed our specialists.

You see ACO doesn't equal ethical. The majority of hospitals and medical groups are not going to become one because its the right thing to do.....they are adapting to meet the market. The market changes and they adapt. But these are businesses...they need to make money.

They will use us...just as the government is going to use as. We will help them sell their wares.

Good old primary care is going to save the day. But not the primary care that was proven in all those studies to cut down on the cost of care and lead to better outcomes. No...we've created a new shiny primary care. All sorts of new bells and whistles. Nothing like that old antiquated...doctor and patient...primary care thing.

The death knell is sounding.

Adapt and become a shadow of what we used to be....

Or stubbornly maintain...

And be eaten alive.