7: Continuity of Care
CONTINUITY OF CARE
Short-term: Declare the value and complexity of generalist medicine. Elevate the role of primary care and ensure remuneration that acknowledges the complexity of primary care services at “top of scope” for complex diagnosis and management. Understand the value-based benefits of continuity of care. De-incentivize/de-prioritize options that place convenience over continuity (virtual walk-in clinics) and care that should be provided by other members of the primary care team.
Long-term: Make generalist medicine a highly desired career choice for medical school graduates. Support areas of expertise within comprehensive primary care, such that they can serve as content experts to each other within networks and be appropriately remunerated. This allows for specialist demand to be reserved for the highly complex and uncommon medical conditions. Ensure a primary care provider human resource management planning process is in place in all OHTs and succession planning addresses the issue of physician retirement/leaves to ensure patients have continuity of primary care.