Episode Details

I cut this clip out of episode 407 with Vivek Garg, MD, MBA, from Humana; and it's actually a really nice follow-on from the show last week with Scott Conard, MD, where we talked about the blowback that happened with clinicians at a clinic. This clinic had put into effect a bunch of the comprehensive primary care kinds of things that Dr. Garg talks about in this summer short. But what happened in Dr. Conard's case is a new practice manager tried to go back to the olden days, and, spoiler alert, it was a kerfuffle. All the docs and the rest of the clinicians staged what sounded like a "mutiny on the bounty" moment from the way Dr. Conard described it.

So, this summer short you're about to hear and the one from last week again share one key point: Doctors, advanced practice clinicians, medical assistants, pretty much everybody on the team really likes a well-executed, operationally excellent transformed primary care model. And it produces better patient care.

I was reading Dr. Robert Pearl's book Uncaring the other day, and he summed up the reason why, I think, these transformed primary care practices do better. He was quoting Atul Gawande, and here's the quoted quote: "The public's experience is that we have amazing clinicians and technologies but little consistent sense that they come together to provide an actual system of care, from start to finish, for people. We train, hire, and pay doctors to be cowboys. But it's pit crews people need."

I interviewed Dr. Pearl, by the way, so stay tuned for that show coming up.

In this summer short, Dr. Garg digs into one common objection to more comprehensively comprehensive primary care, and that is that by improving care, we decrease throughput and, therefore, access to primary care, especially in areas where there are not enough primary care doctors.

You can learn more at humana.com, centerwellprimarycare.com, and the Humana report.

Vivek Garg, MD, MBA, is a physician and executive dedicated to building the models and cultures of care we need for loved ones and healthcare professionals to thrive.

He leads national clinical strategy and excellence, care model development and innovation, and the clinical teams for Humana's Primary Care Organization, CenterWell and Conviva, as chief medical officer (CMO), where they serve approximately 250,000 seniors across the country as their community-based primary care home, with a physician-led team of practitioners, including advanced practice clinicians, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, and therapists.

Dr. Garg is the former chief medical officer of CareMore and Aspire Health, innovative integrated healthcare delivery organizations with over 180,000 patients in over 30 states. He also previously led CareMore's growth and product func