This Week in Mac Sports: 9/15

Family Medical Center Weathers COVID, Doctor Crisis

© New York Medical College Family practitioners at WFMC function as "quarterbacks" because they know the patient and their inter-related health history.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY — The Westchester Family Medical Center is halfway through its fourth year in operation — and it's been quite an interesting time.

The center, a project of the New York Medical College in Valhalla, opened just before COVID-19 hit New York. It stayed open, too, as the people trying to create a small clinic found themselves on the front lines.

Not just the front lines of the pandemic, but of a structural crisis in American health care that goes back decades: the shortage of family doctors.

"The higher the number of family physicians in a community, the healthier it is. That's been replicated in study after study," Lori Weir Solomon, M.D., chair and clinical associate professor of‌ the Department of Family and Community Medicine and director of the WFHC, told Patch. "But people don't realize that value."

In January, US News & World Report called the lack of general practitioners "a hidden crisis."

"The paucity of primary care physicians is not a matter of individual failure, but of a larger system breakdown," the magazine said, citing the American Association of Medical Colleges' projection that the country will face a shortage of 17,800 to 48,000 primary care doctors by 2034.

According to MDLinx, a website for healthcare professionals, student loan debt and the administrative burdens of the U.S. Health care system are the driving factors. Also, the specialties like dermatology pay much better, a disparity that has only been increasing as politicians have cut reimbursement rates for Medicare.

The lack of general practitioners is particularly acute in the Hudson Valley, Solomon said. Some of it has to do with being the northern suburbs of New York City. "We have these huge medical centers that are specialists in all sorts of things. We don't have networks of family practitioners. We don't even have networks for internists."

Oftentimes people don't know what kind of doctor they need to see, and the system doesn't help. "People are getting a lot of specialty episodic care that actually isn't making them healthier," she said.

Recently, however, there have been signs of change.

"Before I started the Family Health Center I was talking to people, I'd say 'we need to have family medicine' and they'd say 'no we don't,'" she said. "But in the past five years there's been an awakening."

Optimally, a person should go to their family doctor first, then a specialist if necessary, with the backing of what Solomon called the "quarterback" function of a doctor who knows the person and their inter-related health history.

"The beauty of family medicine — It's a way of delivering health care that's super reasonable and efficient," she said. "We're in charge of making sure you don't need to get that cardiac catheterization. I would rather prevent cardiac disease than treat it."

She believes the popularity of family medicine goes in cycles. "I think that there is a relationship between the compensation and status and whether people choose family medicine," she said. "There are some people who go into medicine not for money or prestige."

When she talks to students about family medicine as a specialty they ask questions about the hours.

"That's a big issue for this generation of students, they want to have a balance between working and being with their families, more so than previous generations," she said. "They don't want to work 60-70 hours a week."

It is possible to be a family practitioner and work 30-40 hours a week, she said. "Nowadays you can check the patient portal from home. You're still working, but maybe that's more palatable."

One reason the FHC was developed to give the people teaching family medicine at the medical school a place to see patients, she said. "We were having to run around to different places, and it was difficult to have a practice."

The other was to have a location to deliver primary care near the schools, because there weren't enough options for the community.

"When we first started, we were drawing mostly from our schools, students and employees," she said.

Their outside advertising was local, for example to patients visiting the dental clinic at the Touro College of Dental Medicine, which is on the same campus in Valhalla.

"We got patients from there who hadn't seen a doctor in a long time. Their blood pressure was high and they needed to get it down before they could have dental surgery," she said. "We can help, being a source of primary care for their patients who don't have a primary care provider."

Also, she pointed out, a lot of people don't have dental care because it's cost-prohibitive. "We refer people to the dental clinic as well. It's bi-directional," she said.

Then the pandemic hit, and unlike medical specialists who closed their offices, the Family Medical Center found itself very, very busy.

"We vaccinated tons and tons of people on and off campus. We did it for community service," Solomon said. "And some people who came for the vaccines said 'hey, this is really nice' and became patients."

This is family medicine, so the age range of patients at the clinic is very wide. "Our youngest patient right now is a couple of months old. My oldest patient is in their 80s or 90s," she said.

There are three doctors from the NYMC running the clinic. Herself a graduate of the medical school, she's a former director of the family medicine clerkship and now teaches in it. The other two are the directors of the school's third and fourth year curriculum.

They see mostly insured patients and accept most insurance including Medicaid. "We have a flat fee scale for people who don't have insurance, and we work with a lab that has a discounted price list for people who don't have insurance," she said.

Solomon said she had been wanting to open up a family medicine practice on campus for many years, but it wasn't a priority for the Archdiocese of New York, which ran the school for many years after it moved from New York City, where it was founded in the 1890s.

"The ability to form relationships and be with patients for a long period of time is a recipe against burnout," she said. "For me every day is something new. I'm thinking about new patients, thinking about new diagnoses, looking things up. Intellectual stimulation is protection against burnout too. I have a connection with my patients, they have names and lives and families, they exist within a community. Those connections are really important."

The article Family Medical Center Weathers COVID, Doctor Crisis appeared first on Pleasantville-Briarcliff Manor Patch.

UW Family Medicine

About us

The University of Wyoming Family Medicine Clinic (UWFM) provides comprehensive medical care for all ages including obstetrics and gynecology.  We accept most insurance plans and offer a sliding fee scale for patients who qualify based on income.  

Our practice provides equal access to all of our patients regardless of ability to pay.  We proudly accept Medicare and Medicaid, and as a Federally Qualified Health Center, we offer a sliding fee scale as well as discounted pharmaceutical services.

UWFM delivers up-to-date team based medical care through our physicians, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and case managers.

Our clinic works in partnership with Cheyenne Regional Medical Center and many of the specialty providers in Cheyenne to provide a three year intensive training experience for physicians that have graduated medical school and have chosen family medicine as their career.  This training is required to prepare our physicians for their national board certification examination.  Our graduating resident physicians practice throughout Wyoming and across the country.

24-HOUR ANSWERING SERVICE

For your convenience, UWFM providers are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call (307) 632-2434 for medical assistance after clinic hours, on weekends and during holidays.

SERVICIO DE ATENCIÓN LAS 24 HORAS

Para su comodidad, los proveedores de UWFM están de guardia las 24 horas del día, los siete días de la semana. Llame al (307) 632-2434 para obtener asistencia médica después del horario de atención de la clínica, los fines de semana y los feriados.

Family Medical Center: Primary Care Is Much Needed, Too Rare

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY — The Westchester Family Medical Center is halfway through its fourth year in operation — and it's been quite an interesting time.

The center, a project of the New York Medical College in Valhalla, opened just before COVID-19 hit New York. It stayed open, too, as the people trying to create a small clinic found themselves on the front lines.

Not just the front lines of the pandemic, but of a structural crisis in American health care that goes back decades: the shortage of family doctors.

Find out what's happening in Pleasantville-Briarcliff Manorwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"The higher the number of family physicians in a community, the healthier it is. That's been replicated in study after study," Lori Weir Solomon, M.D., chair and clinical associate professor of‌ the Department of Family and Community Medicine and director of the WFHC, told Patch. "But people don't realize that value."

In January, US News & World Report called the lack of general practitioners "a hidden crisis."

Find out what's happening in Pleasantville-Briarcliff Manorwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"The paucity of primary care physicians is not a matter of individual failure, but of a larger system breakdown," the magazine said, citing the American Association of Medical Colleges' projection that the country will face a shortage of 17,800 to 48,000 primary care doctors by 2034.

According to MDLinx, a website for healthcare professionals, student loan debt and the administrative burdens of the U.S. Health care system are the driving factors. The specialties like dermatology pay much better, a disparity that has only been increasing as politicians have cut reimbursement rates for Medicare.

The lack of general practitioners is particularly acute in the Hudson Valley, Dr. Solomon said. Some of it has to do with being the northern suburbs of New York City. "We have these huge medical centers that are specialists in all sorts of things. We don't have networks of family practitioners. We don't even have networks for internists."

Oftentimes, people don't know what kind of doctor they need to see, and the system doesn't help. "People are getting a lot of specialty episodic care that actually isn't making them healthier," she said.

Recently, however, there have been signs of change.

"Before I started the Family Health Center I was talking to people, I'd say 'we need to have family medicine' and they'd say 'no we don't,'" she said. "But in the past five years there's been an awakening."

Optimally, a person should go to their family doctor first, then a specialist if necessary, with the backing of what Solomon called the "quarterback" function of a doctor who knows the person and their inter-related health history.

"The beauty of family medicine — It's a way of delivering health care that's super reasonable and efficient," she said. "We're in charge of making sure you don't need to get that cardiac catheterization. I would rather prevent cardiac disease than treat it."

She believes the popularity of family medicine goes in cycles. "I think that there is a relationship between the compensation and status and whether people choose family medicine," she said. "There are some people who go into medicine not for money or prestige."

When Dr. Solomon talks to students about family medicine as a specialty, they ask questions about the hours.

"That's a big issue for this generation of students, they want to have a balance between working and being with their families, more so than previous generations," she said. "They don't want to work 60-70 hours a week."

It is possible to be a family practitioner and work 30-40 hours a week, she said. "Nowadays you can check the patient portal from home. You're still working, but maybe that's more palatable."

One reason the WFHC was developed to give the people teaching family medicine at the medical school a place to see patients, Dr. Solomon said. "We were having to run around to different places, and it was difficult to have a practice."

The other was to have a location to deliver primary care near the schools, because there weren't enough options for the community.

"When we first started, we were drawing mostly from our schools, students and employees," she said.

Their outside advertising was local, for example to patients visiting the dental clinic at the Touro College of Dental Medicine, which is on the same campus in Valhalla.

"We got patients from there who hadn't seen a doctor in a long time. Their blood pressure was high and they needed to get it down before they could have dental surgery," she said. "We can help, being a source of primary care for their patients who don't have a primary care provider."

Also, she pointed out, a lot of people don't have dental care because it's cost-prohibitive. "We refer people to the dental clinic as well. It's bi-directional," she said.

Then the pandemic hit, and unlike medical specialists who closed their offices, the Family Medical Center found itself very, very busy.

"We vaccinated tons and tons of people on and off campus. We did it for community service," Dr. Solomon said. "And some people who came for the vaccines said 'hey, this is really nice' and became patients."

This is family medicine, so the age range of patients at the clinic is very wide. "Our youngest patient right now is a couple of months old. My oldest patient is in their 80s or 90s," she said.

There are three doctors from the NYMC running the clinic. Herself a graduate of the medical school, she's a former director of the family medicine clerkship and now teaches in it. The other two are the directors of the school's third and fourth year curriculum.

They see mostly insured patients and accept most insurance including Medicaid. "We have a flat fee scale for people who don't have insurance, and we work with a lab that has a discounted price list for people who don't have insurance," she said.

Dr. Solomon said she had been wanting to open up a family medicine practice on campus for many years, but it wasn't a priority for the Archdiocese of New York, which ran the school for many years after it moved from New York City, where it was founded in the 1890s.

"The ability to form relationships and be with patients for a long period of time is a recipe against burnout," she said. "For me every day is something new. I'm thinking about new patients, thinking about new diagnoses, looking things up. Intellectual stimulation is protection against burnout too. I have a connection with my patients, they have names and lives and families, they exist within a community. Those connections are really important."

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