While COVID-19 created disruption and disarray in so many aspects of our lives—including healthcare—it also helped to highlight the vast (and immediate) opportunities to make primary care better for the patients who receive it and for the providers who deliver it.
In a recent appearance on Catalyst’s biweekly podcast, Primary First, Catalyst CEO and Co-founder, Dr. Christopher Crow, dove into several of these key lessons learned about primary care over the course of the pandemic.
Healthcare doesn’t have to be offered in person to preserve the value of the physician-patient relationship. Offering different ways to receive care—other than in a traditional exam room—provides obvious advantages … but only if used to enable (and not replace) the connection that patients have with their physicians. The expansion of telehealth and digital communication tools should be used to help patients and providers connect in more efficient, more timely, more accessible ways. The kicker to this: These digital interactions need to continue to be reimbursed fairly to ensure that the avenues of access stay as open as possible.
Patients are empowered to focus on their health with services that offer convenience and accessibility. By expanding healthcare delivery to include virtual options, patients can focus on their own health journey with fewer concerns about availability and time. It’s logical and perhaps self-evident, but it bears repeating: The more barriers we remove between patients and quality care, the more likely they are to seek out quality care, stay accountable to their care plans and live healthier lives.
Primary care is critical to our health and the health of our communities. Among the most crucial realizations that came out of COVID-19 was a profound appreciation for primary care. For decades, we have encouraged people to engage with their primary care physicians. Why? Because as we have seen again and again, patients with primary care physicians live longer, have lower overall healthcare costs and have more good days than bad. When COVID-19 began affecting people with chronic conditions and then began shifting to people with no underlying health concerns, patients who had PCPs knew they could turn to them as points of trusted care during moments of overwhelming fear and confusion
Catalyst was founded with the belief that in healthcare we must start earlier if we want go farther. In virtually every other part of our lives, we recognize this and dedicate focus toward it. We appreciate the compounding value that accumulates over time when we do the things that put time on our side.
So why not in healthcare? Why shouldn’t we put greater emphasis and investment in primary care for all—and do so earlier in life—to ensure that people can live the longest, healthiest, best lives possible?
The trajectory of health in our communities can dramatically shift in our lifetimes, depending on what we all do in the next few years. Gain more insight from physician experts and other market leaders by subscribing to Catalyst’s biweekly podcast, Primary First, on your favorite podcast platform.