Recommended Citation
Merlotti L, Matz B, Soik S, Wales D. Every Patient Needs a PCP - Active Attribution of a Primary Care Provider. Presented at Scientific Day; May 21, 2025; Park Ridge, IL.
Abstract
Background/Significance:
Empanelment has been shown to effectively distribute the workload amongst providers in a specific practice resulting in increased patient and provider satisfaction. At the Advocate Lutheran General Hospital Family Medicine (FM) residency, like many residencies, there is not a specific protocol in place to establish a unique panel for each resident and many patients have inaccurate primary care physicians (PCPs) designated.
Purpose:
Our objective was to have 100% of patients seen at the Nesset Family Medicine office from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2023, assigned to a specific PCP by January 1, 2024.
Methods:
A flow sheet was designed to help select which provider should be designated as a patient’s PCP. Patient service representative (PSR) staff and residents utilized this flow sheet to manually re-assign each patient that had an outdated or inaccurate PCP. On our second Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle, we switched to a random assignment protocol.
Results:
Our main outcome was measured to be the percentage of patients seen at the Nesset Family Medicine Residency Clinic that had a PCP who was a current resident. By the study's end date, we had increased from 61% to 92% of patients who were accurately assigned to a resident panel. As a balancing measure, a survey was distributed to determine the level of stress that this re-assignment process added to the PSR workload: 100% strongly agreed that manual re-assignment added stress. In comparison, 85.71% strongly disagreed with that assignment added stress during routine patient check-in.
Conclusions:
Patients can effectively be assigned to PCP panels in residency clinics using available tools in Epic EMR. While using a patient’s visit history to re-assign may be most accurate, this is a much more time-intensive and stress-inducing process compared to random assignment. Future plans include optimizing this process as third-year residents graduate from the program each year and possibly incorporating a way to weigh panels by patient complexity.
Presentation Notes
Presented at Scientific Day; May 21, 2025; Park Ridge, IL.
Full Text of Presentation
wf_yes
Document Type
Poster
Every Patient Needs a PCP - Active Attribution of a Primary Care Provider
Background/Significance:
Empanelment has been shown to effectively distribute the workload amongst providers in a specific practice resulting in increased patient and provider satisfaction. At the Advocate Lutheran General Hospital Family Medicine (FM) residency, like many residencies, there is not a specific protocol in place to establish a unique panel for each resident and many patients have inaccurate primary care physicians (PCPs) designated.
Purpose:
Our objective was to have 100% of patients seen at the Nesset Family Medicine office from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2023, assigned to a specific PCP by January 1, 2024.
Methods:
A flow sheet was designed to help select which provider should be designated as a patient’s PCP. Patient service representative (PSR) staff and residents utilized this flow sheet to manually re-assign each patient that had an outdated or inaccurate PCP. On our second Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle, we switched to a random assignment protocol.
Results:
Our main outcome was measured to be the percentage of patients seen at the Nesset Family Medicine Residency Clinic that had a PCP who was a current resident. By the study's end date, we had increased from 61% to 92% of patients who were accurately assigned to a resident panel. As a balancing measure, a survey was distributed to determine the level of stress that this re-assignment process added to the PSR workload: 100% strongly agreed that manual re-assignment added stress. In comparison, 85.71% strongly disagreed with that assignment added stress during routine patient check-in.
Conclusions:
Patients can effectively be assigned to PCP panels in residency clinics using available tools in Epic EMR. While using a patient’s visit history to re-assign may be most accurate, this is a much more time-intensive and stress-inducing process compared to random assignment. Future plans include optimizing this process as third-year residents graduate from the program each year and possibly incorporating a way to weigh panels by patient complexity.
Affiliations
Advocate Lutheran General Hospital