CMC-Elizabeth Family Medicine wins 2014 FPM Practice Improvement Award

A North Carolina primary care clinic has won this year’s Family Practice Management Award for Practice Improvement.

Carolina Medical Center-Elizabeth Family Medicine, based in Charlotte, was named winner Friday during the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Conference on Practice Improvement being held in Tampa, Fla.

FPM Medical Editor Kenneth Adler, MD, MMM, presented the award to the clinic’s medical director, M. Quentin Fité, MD.
The clinic was recognized for using LEAN efficiency principles over several years to dramatically improve patient satisfaction scores, appropriate care metrics, patient visits, and overhead costs, as well as standardize clinic processes and make more choices based on data rather than gut decisions.

LEAN, first developed by automobile manufacturers, is a systemic approach to improving efficiency by eliminating waste and understanding what parts of the operation create value for the patients and staff.

CMC-Elizabeth Family Medicine is part of the Carolinas HealthCare System and primary ambulatory clinic for CMC’s family medicine residency program. The clinic handles about 25,000 patient visits a year with more than half of its payer mix made up of Medicare and Medicaid patients.