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Move into the future now! Tell FP Report your success stories
The Future of Family Medicine project gave birth to its report in late March, and family physicians are asking how to tackle the FFM recommendations. A few answers are bubbling up.
"I want a specific I can do Monday. It's time for me to do something," FP Lloyd Van Winkle, M.D., of Castroville, Texas, said at an FFM town hall meeting during AAFP's Annual Leadership Forum April 30 - May 1 in Kansas City, Mo. (The FFM report is online at http://www.annfammed.org/cgi/content/full/2/suppl_1/s3.)
AAFP President Michael Fleming, M.D., of Shreveport, La., had answers:
Spinning off that third idea for what you can do Monday, tell FP Report what's succeeding in your office.
It might be steps you've taken that can help move you toward the FFM scenario AAFP Board Chair James Martin, M.D., of San Antonio described at the town hall meeting.
"In the early morning," said Martin, "you'll do e-mails, taking care of eight to 10 patients you've seen before. You'll be reimbursed for that. There'll be no long bus-station lines at your office. You'll be able to get off the hamster wheel and spend appropriate time on patients with more complex problems. In the afternoon, you'll have two or three group visits.
"By the end of the day, you'll have no stack of charts; the info will all be in your EHR system."
In the meantime, back to Monday.
Let FP Report know about a successful strategy at your office. Call associate editor Toni Lapp at (800) 274-2237, Ext. 5216, or e-mail tlapp@aafp.org. Share your success -- perhaps in doing office procedures, serving diverse populations, giving patients control of their health or grounding your care in evidence-based medicine -- and FP Report may tell your story.
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Copyright © 2004 by
American Academy of Family Physicians.