Dear Friends,
We know this is a difficult time for our primary care practices, their staff members, our patients, our families, and ourselves. We are facing an unimaginable crisis without the support we all need, whether it be in the form of personal protective equipment, replacement staff to take the places of those who develop infection, testing capacity, or financial resources to cover unexpected and unplanned for expenses and revenue shortfalls. On the other hand, the resourcefulness, sacrifice, and innovation that is occurring in practices daily is inspiring as practices become virtual overnight, identify resources to deal with the increased volume of calls, and develop relationships with community resources to help our patients.
Here in the Center, we are doing our best to be helpful, and would welcome your suggestions as to other things that we might do for the primary care community. Our work continues to revolve around practice support and redesign, research, education, and innovation and entrepreneurship. We are holding calls with members of our Primary Care Improvement Network to share experiences and best practices, and have extended this to additional practices across the state. We are working with the Massachusetts Quality Health Partnership to evaluate virtual care so we will be prepared to advocate for continued remote care options once the pandemic ends, and to offer advice on how we might improve the virtual experience. And we are working to draw attention to the amazing work that is going on in primary care practices as they continue, despite the pandemic, to provide access to their patients, while also offering continuity and reassurance to their patients through trusting relationships communicated through video interfaces and telephone.
We are eager to feature stories of innovation, resilience, success, and the inevitable sadness that accompanies the losses we know we will face, so please do send us your stories, and we will do our best to share them using our social media channels.
With best wishes for good health,
Russ Phillips
Director, Center for Primary Care
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