When I decided to pursue a career in medicine, I envisioned giving back to the people in my community who had supported me throughout my childhood. I would work hard to get through medical school and residency and then leverage my knowledge and experience to help the people of Murray – a rural town in western Kentucky – live healthier lives.

Today, I am back in my hometown doing just that. I care for my former teachers, my neighbors, my friends. I experience major milestones with my patients and their loved ones. For me, it is incredibly satisfying to care for patients I have long known or am able to get to know well in our small community. It was harder to get here than I thought it would be though, and I have learned several lessons about practicing medicine within the U.S. healthcare system along the way.

If you want to dedicate your time to clinical care, you need infrastructure and support

During my medical training, it had not occurred to me that a career dedicated to caring for patients would require allocating time toward anything other than clinical care. The purpose of my hard work was to develop medical expertise.

I quickly learned, however, that private practice often requires carrying out other functions as well. These tasks – frequently business or administratively oriented – are not where my skills and interests lie. Yet without proper support, there was no way to succeed in private practice without committing time to these duties.

Figuring out how to work within an infrastructure that provided the right type of support so that I could focus my time and energies on my patients became a significant priority for me. Today at VillageMD, I have support staff, from front desk administrators to nurses, who receive specialized training aimed at promoting the best care for patients. The result for me is that I get to spend most of my time focused on clinical care. Our patients in turn benefit from more focused attention on their health.

Providing high-quality preventative care requires a proactive team effort

It often happens in medical practice that visits with patients are focused on their concern of the day. I had imagined addressing these urgent issues with a deep understanding of my patients’ health so I could incorporate as much relevant medical history as possible into my clinical care. By the time I had joined VillageMD, I had recognized that the commitment to preventative care does not stop at ensuring regular visits with patients or delivering timely interventions. Instead, it requires a much more proactive approach to reducing health-related risks and promoting wellbeing across the lifespan.

As part of our dedication to high quality preventative care, VillageMD develops and employs metrics that help us identify who should be screened for what and when. While this practice helps us to act on relevant risks for our patients, we also deploy personnel to ensure we capture other information that can help us protect the health of our patients and engage care teams to intervene when necessary.

For example, we have managers who call patients for more frequent communication than would occur if we relied solely on practice visits. We also have specialists who treat patients in their homes and who help educate patients on how to engage in beneficial self-care by, for instance, taking their medications correctly. When combined, our preventative care services empowers us as well as our patients to maintain an updated and comprehensive view of their health so that we can deliver on needs.

Both patients and providers benefit from an optimized value-based care model

It has become clear to me that a shift toward value-based care would benefit the healthcare system broadly because it reduces the costs associated with crisis management. By prioritizing prevention, medical care would no longer be withheld until health had deteriorated to the point that costly interventions were needed. I’ve also developed an appreciation for how much value-based care can improve each individual patient’s health as well as the provider’s experience practicing medicine.

The focus on prevention afforded by our value-based care model means that not only are our patients living healthier lives, but they are also less likely to need lengthy stays in hospitals and nursing homes. With VillageMD, our patients now have access to services to which they did not previously have, which is an incredible benefit for them. These services include care managers to help monitor their health and answer their questions, specialized therapists to help with medications and specific clinical needs, and a home program where providers travel to the homes of those who have mobility or transportation challenges.

Critically, our model also focuses on the providers and ensuring we are supported in ways that enable us to offer the most clinical value to our patients. For example, in addition to all the clinical and administrative support staff, we also have pharmacists who work directly with us to ensure that patients are getting the medications they need.

Through resources that allow me to focus on my patients and colleagues that are committed to serving our community, I am able to provide care that is comprehensive, preventative, and ultimately serves the needs of the patient over the long-term. This has been a wonderful change from my previous experience in private practice. If you are interested in joining me at VillageMD, you can review the opportunities here.