As Season 2 of BoPC’s podcast keeps reminding us, relationship is a key component to high value health care. Certainly, frequency of visits aids in building a trusting relationship. But we sometimes forget that helping a patient feel cared for plays an even greater role. Proximity, touch, compassion, and empathy all facilitate this feeling. Sitting at eye level, within a few feet of a person shows them you’re engaged and, in turn, engages them.

Medicare Annual Wellness Visits (AWV) are frequently viewed by primary care providers as a tedious visit in which patients see little value. With consistent access to care issues and a shortage of primary care providers, these visits are easy to push to the side and focus on other visits. The problem is, these visits can impact attribution and they are also a key metric in value-based care plans as well as Accountable Care Organization (ACO) requirements to receive incentive payments. So how can a practice balance the need to maintain attribution and satisfy insurance requirements while still providing crucial hands-on care to patients? The answer may be more simple than hiring more providers or limiting new patients. Nurse-led Annual Wellness Visit programs have been proven to effectively meet the AWV requirements while increasing access to the provider for other visits.

Merriam-Webster defines quality as the “degree of excellence”. So how do we define the degree of excellence in healthcare? What does quality healthcare look like? This answer can vary depending upon who is asked the question.

ACP is a face-to-face service (including telemedicine) where a patient and their physician discuss the patient’s health care wishes should they become unable to make decisions about their care. Things like advance directives and Health Care Proxies are discussed. [You can generally find ADs on your State attorney generals’ office website.]