Shadowed a PA in a Medical Home this morning

[MedicinePower]

I spent 4 hours this morning shadowing a PA in a Medical Home. The experience was unique and excellent. In this Medical Home not only are there physicians and PAs (no NPs) but there are full-time social workers, a nutritionist, a psychiatrist (4 hours a week), and a full-time pharmacist. The PA I was shadowing shared an office with one of the Social Workers and they collaborated on nearly every patient. When the Social Worker had a patient who clearly needed a psychopharm there was no delay in getting the medication ordered and filled. When there was a need for an Rx for talk therapy there was similarly no delay. The nutritionist was regularly talking to patients with new-onset DM and HTN. Even the pharmacist (who was not working in a pharmacy) was well engaged in managing patients with multiple conditions requiring polypharmacy.

 

This stands apart from my previous experiences of a solo provider or a small group of similarly trained clinicians. I was impressed with the holistic nature of the medicine being practiced and have high hopes for the Medical Home model.