Journal of general internal medicine
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Reliable systems that track the continuation, progression, or resolution of a patient's symptoms over time are essential for reliable diagnosis and ensuring that patients harboring more worrisome diagnoses are safely followed up. Given their first-contact role and increasing stresses on busy primary care clinicians and practices, new processes that make these tasks easier rather than creating more work for busy clinicians are especially needed. ⋯ Working with systems engineers, we are developing prototypes for such systems and are working on their implementation and evaluation. In this commentary, we describe approaches to this essential, but underappreciated, problem in primary care.
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Bessie Anaya, a patient at La Clínica del Pueblo in Washington, D. C. contributes the following patient perspective on diabetes care. The interview in Spanish has been condensed and edited from two conversations with Angela Suarez and Rodrigo Stein, staff at La Clínica del Pueblo. An English translation of the interview follows.
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Integrated medical and social care via community health worker (CHW) services is a growing area of interest, particularly among health care organizations that offer care for underserved populations. Establishing Medicaid reimbursement for CHW services is only one step to improve access to CHW services. ⋯ This paper provides an overview of the barriers and strategies to operationalize Medicaid reimbursement for CHW services in the state of Minnesota, through the experience of a CHW service and technical assistance provider. Based on lessons learned in Minnesota, recommendations are made to other states, payers, and organizations as they navigate processes to operationalize Medicaid payment for CHW services.