Group (Shared) Medical Visits for patients with common chronic conditions
In the coming months some of you will be involved in a new project during Ambulatory – the Shared Medical Appointment. This is another effort to improve the outcome of our care for patients with chronic disease. At this time we are focusing on our patients with uncontrolled hypertension. This idea of an informal multidisciplinary team approach where there is a focus on peer interaction as an adjunct to usual primary care has been gaining popularlity and has actually shown good results in terms of improving outcomes in patients with diabetes and hypertension. In addition to your participation as medical providers/educators, we will have our dietician, a pharmacist, a nurse educator, and possibly a health psychologist available for the session.
The plan is for the group to come together and discuss issues that are of interest to the patients – for about 45 minutes. Then each patient will be seen individually with a focused visit to assess their blood pressure and make adjustments as needed.
Please read through the references that are available on the Ambulatory site and be prepared to answer questions about hypertension in terms that our patients would understand. Any questions – please ask me. Thanks!
Dr Weinstein
Articles
1. “Medical Clinics Versus Usual Care for Patients With Both Diabetes and Hypertension – A Randomized Trial” Edelman et al, Annals of Internal Medicine, June 2010
2. “Quality-Improvement Initiative for Rapid Induction of Hypertension Control in Primary Care” – Naik et al, Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2010 September ; 3(5): 558–564. doi:10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES. 109.913137
