Sometimes you need care from a specialist. Your primary care physician typically will refer you to one to address more complex conditions. In these cases, ensuring you get the care you need when you need it – a practice called care coordination – becomes critical. In a Direct Primary Care setting, this coordination has a well earned reputation for being exceptionally thorough, helpful, and easy.

What is Care Coordination?

When people imagine seeing a doctor once or twice a year, they’re usually thinking about their regular wellness visit, where you check in on your health and chat about your overall wellness goals. In some cases these regular visits may uncover issues that need to be addressed by a specialist or are otherwise not covered by a patient’s primary care physician. In other cases, acute illness may require specialized treatment. Whatever the cause, coordinating this care is a critical process that involves ensuring the needed care gets delivered and benefits the patient without disruption, duplication, or conflict.

In a traditional primary care setting, coordinating and managing these specialist visits (and what they mean for your health) typically falls largely to the patient. Primary care doctors (and staff) in these settings are required to see too many patients and simply don’t have the time to offer thorough care coordination.

At a Direct Primary Care clinic, on the other hand, patient numbers tend to be much lower, meaning each doctor has more time to spend with patients and take the lead in coordinating their care when it’s needed. At Progressive Health Primary Care, for example, our staff is able to help patients coordinate specialist care in a consistent, thorough, and meaningful way. We help them navigate the healthcare system and understand how each specialist visit impacts their overall health.

Examples of Coordinated Care

A patient may need coordinated care for a wide variety of reasons, some chronic and some acute. Common examples include the following:

Managing a chronic disease: Sometimes diseases such as heart disease, cancer, or diabetes require more than one doctor to treat and that care is better delivered when coordinated.
A short term event: Events such as accidents, injuries, or even surgery may require more intensive care from a variety of doctors. This care must be coordinated to be most effective.
High priority issues: Coordination of care can sometimes help patients receive required care faster. For example, a patient that suffered a concussion was referred to a neuro-ophthalmology specialist but the specialist’s office informed the patient that the next appointment was months away. Dr. Liu at Progressive Health Primary Care was able to call and get an appointment much sooner–in only two weeks. In another case, Dr. Liu had a patient with urgent kidney issues. When this patient’s kidney specialist retired, Dr. Liu was able to get her patient an appointment with a new doctor sooner and communicate to the doctor the patient’s background.

In each of these cases, better coordination from a Direct Primary Care practice can help lead to significant benefits. These benefits include faster recovery, fewer complications, and reduced hospital admissions or re-admissions as a result. Additionally, members at Direct Primary Care clinics will typically have an easier time getting in touch with their doctors (especially while traveling) when urgent situations arise.

Common Types of Coordination

Coordination of care often involves specific tasks. Each task can help patients better manage their health and their overall healthcare experience. There are several types of care coordination that the Direct Primary Care team at Progressive Health Primary Care offers to our members. They include the following:

Coordinating care with specialists: In order to provide more effective treatment, specialists often need to have an understanding of your overall health, wellness, and healthcare goals. This is true whether you’re visiting an ENT for a sore throat or getting ready for an outpatient procedure in a hospital setting. Direct Primary Care physicians will communicate this information to your specialist, adding valuable context to your care.
Scheduling outpatient appointments and tests: When making appointments for outpatient visits, labs, and tests, it can sometimes be challenging for patients to navigate the various healthcare systems involved. It may not be clear the order in which these tests or procedures must be scheduled or when they need to be completed by. Many Direct Primary Care Clinics will help patients make these appointments directly, so they always know what care they should be receiving when.
Discussing results from specialists: Sometimes, it’s difficult to interpret your results from a specialist. When that happens, your Direct Primary Care doctor can be a resource to help you translate the results into language you can understand.
Communicating with hospitals for inpatient admissions: In some cases, it’s challenging for patients to communicate directly with hospital departments or navigate a hospital’s bureaucracy. Your Direct Primary Care doctor may be able to step in and clear up confusion about the care being proposed, or to provide the hospital clinical staff with health history leading up to a hospitalization.
Providing preoperative clearance physicals: Many surgical procedures require a preoperative physical exam to ensure you’re healthy enough for your desired procedure. In many cases, you can have your preoperative physical performed right with your Direct Primary Care physician.

Many of these services are offered at Direct Primary Care clinics more broadly as well. At Progressive Health Primary Care, all of this coordination is covered by monthly membership dues. This means that this coordination comes at no additional cost for members. For many patients this means that Direct Primary Care is a significant source of quality care and of savings.

Get the Care You Need

With the right primary care team behind you, coordinating outpatient procedures or visits with specialists can become an easy, routine part of your healthcare. And because your Direct Primary Care doctor isn’t tied to a hospital or health system, you’re free to choose the specialists or venue that fits you best.

At a Direct Primary Care clinic like Progressive Health, the goal is to make sure you’re getting the care you need every step of the way. Want to learn more about Direct Primary Care membership? Contact us to schedule a consultation.