November 4, 2015
By: Dr. Gary Bevill, SAMA Healthcare Services and William Taunton, Patient, SAMA Healthcare Services
Initially a four-doctor practice, SAMA Healthcare Services is breaking ground in coordinated, patient-centered health care in rural El Dorado, Arkansas. Although SAMA doctors had known early on that this is how they wanted to practice medicine, they could do only so much until they got support from theComprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, an Affordable Care Act program. Dr. Gary Bevill and SAMA patient William Taunton recently talked about the initiative.
Dr. Bevill: When I finished my residency in 1985, everybody in Southern Arkansas worked solo. But several of us in town felt there had to be a better way—we knew we needed more support if we were to realize our vision. We were energized by a CPC webinar that showed us how we could become more patient-centered. After the webinar, our administrator Pete Atkinson drew up the model for us on a pizza box top as we brainstormed about how we could afford to reconfigure our practice.
We received $400,000 the first year from multiple payers, including the Innovation Center, to help cover the $500,000 cost to launch, and maintain, the CPC initiative in our clinic; the funds were calculated on a monthly per-beneficiary basis. The CPC funds helped us hire staff to support the patient-centered medical home model and improve continuity of care for our patients.
We were able to hire another doctor and nurse-practitioner and established five teams, with patients assigned to each team. Each team has a doctor, a nurse-practitioner, three additional nurses and a care coordinator. One of SAMA’s nurse-practitioners is a diabetes specialist and another is a pediatrics specialist.
Each team wears scrubs with their color. Mine is orange and my tie is orange. Each exam room is tagged with a team color.
READ MORE: Conversations About Coordinated Care in Rural ArkansasDr. Bevill: When I finished my residency in 1985, everybody in Southern Arkansas worked solo. But several of us in town felt there had to be a better way—we knew we needed more support if we were to realize our vision. We were energized by a CPC webinar that showed us how we could become more patient-centered. After the webinar, our administrator Pete Atkinson drew up the model for us on a pizza box top as we brainstormed about how we could afford to reconfigure our practice.
We received $400,000 the first year from multiple payers, including the Innovation Center, to help cover the $500,000 cost to launch, and maintain, the CPC initiative in our clinic; the funds were calculated on a monthly per-beneficiary basis. The CPC funds helped us hire staff to support the patient-centered medical home model and improve continuity of care for our patients.
We were able to hire another doctor and nurse-practitioner and established five teams, with patients assigned to each team. Each team has a doctor, a nurse-practitioner, three additional nurses and a care coordinator. One of SAMA’s nurse-practitioners is a diabetes specialist and another is a pediatrics specialist.
Each team wears scrubs with their color. Mine is orange and my tie is orange. Each exam room is tagged with a team color.
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