Modeling Family Medicine Provider Care Team Design to Improve Patient Care Continuity

Area of Science:

• Primary care
• Health services research
• Patient care continuity

Background:

• Continuity of care is crucial for high-quality primary care.
• Provider time constraints in family medicine limit clinical availability.
• Provider care teams can mitigate access issues and enhance care continuity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize patient care continuity based on provider types and panel management time (PMT).
• To reduce variability in provider care team continuity.
• To determine optimal provider mix within care teams.

Main Methods:

• Measured care continuity by the percentage of patient appointments seen by a provider in their own care team (ASOCT).
• Developed a prediction method to identify key components influencing continuity.
• Utilized an optimization model to find the ideal provider composition for teams.

Main Results:

• Current ASOCT percentages in care teams range from 46% to 68%.
• Team compositions vary, with 1-5 MDs and 0-6 NP/PAs.
• The proposed model achieved a consistent 62% ASOCT with 3-4 MDs and NP/PAs per team.

Conclusions:

• A predictive model combined with assignment optimization enhances ASOCT consistency.
• This approach leads to more uniform provider mix and count within care teams.
• Optimized team structures improve overall patient care continuity.