Primary Care Physician Val Nateson visits with a patient in his Salisbury office.
Clinical integration will improve healthcare
Dr. James Trumble is on a mission.
As the Vice President of Clinical Integration for Peninsula Regional Health System, he spends several hours on the road each week visiting medical offices in an attempt to enhance patient care.
His job is clinical integration, and it has many benefits; patients have better access to their doctors, and doctors are able to align with other community providers to ensure patients know their next step in the continuum of care.
“It’s a really good feeling to be part of this,” Dr. Trumble said.
In Maryland, due to the reimbursement model, hospitals are held accountable for the health of their community. Without the help of community physicians, keeping patients well is an impossible task.
But with clinical integration — improved communication among hospitals, primary care providers, nursing homes, home health agencies, etc. — the end result is better care and a better experience for the patient.
“Clinical integration is the way we work closely with physician practices to incorporate the many clinical, social, and economic aspects of health and healthcare together to service a greater goal of better community health and individual patient health.”
“Clinical integration is the way we work closely with physician practices to incorporate the many clinical, social, and economic aspects of health and healthcare together to service a greater goal of better community health and individual patient health.”
Clinical integration is proving effective, Dr. Trumble said. It is not only improving connections with community providers, but it is augmenting support for staffing and technology and creating innovations in care redesign.
While there is much work to be done, Dr. Trumble and his team are already seeing results. For him, success will be achieved when care gaps are closed.
“We want patients get to a point of self-management of their chronic disease,” he said. “This takes working together to help patients achieve that goal, and requires us to be proactive in the way we prevent disease and disease progression.”