Primary Care Practice Transformation Introduces Different Staff Roles.

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Primary Care Medicine
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• The Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative aimed to enhance primary care delivery through practice transformation.
• Staffing models in primary care significantly influence the quality and scope of services offered.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize changes in staffing patterns within CPC practices from 2012 to 2016.
• To compare the 2016 staffing composition of CPC practices with similar non-CPC practices.

Main Methods:

• An online survey was administered to US primary care practices.
• Statistical analyses, including 2-tailed t-tests and logistic regression, were used to compare staff composition.
• 461 CPC practices and 358 comparison practices participated in the survey.

Main Results:

• CPC practices significantly increased the proportion of care managers/care coordinators (24% to 84%) and behavioral health professionals (19% to 29%) by 2016.
• Larger and system-affiliated practices were more likely to adopt these new roles.
• In 2016, CPC practices were substantially more likely than comparison practices to have care managers/coordinators (84% vs. 36%) and behavioral health professionals (29% vs. 12%).

Conclusions:

• The CPC initiative facilitated the integration of new staff roles, such as care managers and behavioral health professionals, into primary care.
• CPC practices demonstrated a sustained shift towards more comprehensive staffing models compared to non-CPC practices post-initiative.