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Estimating a reasonable patient panel size for primary care physicians with team-based task delegation.
Justin Altschuler1, David Margolius, Thomas Bodenheimer
1Center for Excellence in Primary Care, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94110, USA.
Annals of Family Medicine
|September 12, 2012
Summary
Delegating preventive and chronic care tasks to nonphysician team members can help primary care practices manage larger patient panels. This approach addresses physician shortages and improves care delivery efficiency.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare Management
- Primary Care Medicine
- Team-Based Care
Background:
- Primary care physicians face increasing patient panel sizes due to workforce shortages.
- Managing large patient panels challenges the delivery of comprehensive preventive and chronic care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To estimate optimal primary care panel sizes under various task delegation models.
- To assess the impact of delegating services to nonphysician team members on panel size.
Main Methods:
- Utilized published time-estimates for primary care physician services.
- Modeled changes in panel size based on delegated preventive and chronic care tasks.
- Assessed delegation scenarios at 77%, 60%, and 50% for preventive care, and 47%, 30%, and 25% for chronic care.
Main Results:
- Estimated achievable panel sizes of 1,947, 1,523, and 1,387 patients.
- Demonstrated that task delegation significantly impacts potential panel capacity.
- Showcased the feasibility of maintaining care standards with adjusted panel sizes.
Conclusions:
- Task delegation to nonphysician primary care team members is a viable strategy.
- Practices can achieve manageable panel sizes while delivering recommended care.
- This model supports workforce sustainability in primary care settings.
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