Looking to 2019: The future of UT Health Physicians
by Carlos Rosende, M.D., Executive Director, UT Health Physicians

 

Eight years ago, the clinical practice of the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine, now called UT Health Physicians, recognized the changing landscape of health care delivery and identified future trends for reimbursement for clinical services. Medical care would need to be coordinated and integrated with an emphasis on keeping patients healthy and out of the emergency rooms to avoid needless hospitalizations. Evidence-based treatments would be encouraged, if not required, by Medicare and other third-party payers. Hospitals and clinicians would be paid based on efficient utilization of resources, achievement of quality metrics and clinical outcomes. These concepts, contained in the phrases “value-based reimbursement” and “population health management,” would come to define the future of health care.  

 

In partnership with national experts in health care delivery, UT Health Physicians developed four overarching strategic goals for the practice to successfully navigate the waters of value-based care and population health, while continuing to serve our community and support our missions of education and research. These four goals are as critical to the success of our practice as we look forward to 2019 as they were in 2012, when we first identified them.

 

Goal 1: Build a primary care network consisting of employed and associated health care providers.

 

Primary care physicians and their teams organized in patient-centered medical homes are the key to keeping patients healthy and helping them access specialists when necessary. Primary care at UT Health Physicians has been an NCQA-recognized Patient-Centered Medical Home since 2016. Two new primary care practices were added to our existing five locations in 2018. Additionally, we have established an accountable care organization (ACO), UT Health Regional Physician Network™, by which we will partner with community primary care practices to meet high standards of quality and utilization for Medicare patients. We will continue to increase access to primary care for patients by bringing community providers into our network.

 

Goal 2: Improve access to specialty care.

 

One year ago, we established an Access Task Force (ATF), led by the Dan Johnson, M.D., chair of the ophthalmology department. The ATF established processes that enabled individual UT Health Physicians practices to increase new patient visits by 23 percent and total visits by 10 percent over the same period last year. This was accomplished without adding more physicians, more clinic sessions or more appointment slots. It was achieved by simply ensuring that all current appointment slots were filled. Access remains an essential matter for UT Health Physicians. We cannot help patients unless we can see them in our practices.

 

Goal 3: Expand our geographic footprint. 

 

Not all patients can easily travel to our main locations within the medical center. Therefore, we must be willing to expand our presence beyond this central location. We have established practices at Westover Hills, the Hill Country, near Loop 1604 and Bandera (UT Health Verde Hills) and in Shavano Park to facilitate access to our primary care physicians and certain specialists. We use Sg2, a business intelligence system, to help us identify locations where there is a need for physicians, and we are currently exploring other potential sites for future expansion of our services.

 

Goal 4: Create more nationally recognized clinical programs.

 

These often take the form of clinical centers, where specialists from different disciplines work together under a common leadership to provide a “one-stop shop” care experience for the patient. Clinical conditions such as cancers, cardiovascular diseases and organ transplant are the typical illnesses in which patients benefit from coordinated, integrated clinical services.

 

We are expanding our health network in complex diseases and services such as transplant, cancer, primary care, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's. These centers are the result of numerous initiatives at the department and institutional levels that will positively impact our practice and our patients. 

 

Chief among these is the affiliation with MD Anderson Cancer Center, which will help enhance the level of coordinated cancer care for our patients. Sharing protocols with our sister institution from Houston, cancer patients will not need to travel to Houston to receive the same standard of advanced treatment.

 

Looking to the future, providing excellent, patient-centered care is our first priority as we rapidly expand to meet the needs of a fast-growing community. Our strategic goals give us the roadmap to transform our clinical practice to best serve our patients, our community and our institution. By pursuing them, UT Health Physicians will become a leader in health care transformation in San Antonio and Texas.

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In this issue
Practice Operations Update
Looking to 2019: The future of UT Health Physicians
Get Ready for Spirit Week 2018
Employee of the Year and Practice of the Year Honored
4th Annual Women’s Comprehensive Health Conference
Welcome to UT Health San Antonio!
UT Health Physicians in the News