A new idea being tested at the University of Chicago is targeting high-risk patients with comprehensive care physicians.
Physicians are assigned patients identified as being at high risk for hospitalization and follow them through inpatient, outpatient and home care settings. The advantages to this model include:
- High-risk patients can receive hospital and clinic care from the same physician, reducing the likelihood of lapses in care around a hospitalization.
- There is an established physician-patient relationship.
- It is possible to avoid the added costs of care coordination interventions.
“Providing these physicians with a volume of inpatients and locating their clinics in or near the hospital can allow them to offer many of the same benefits that hospitalists provide in terms of inpatient experience and physicial presence and to offer the additional benefit of continuity across settings and over time,” according to a Health Affairs report on the new model.
The new model is being tested currently, and data on the effectiveness of the program will be available in 2016. The program is funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation.
