Pulse
Briefs
Courting Consumers
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is taking its message about the importance of primary care to consumers.
On April 7, the academy ran an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal promoting “a new model of patient-centered primary care” that focuses on disease prevention, chronic disease management, and same-day appointments.
“Every other industrialized nation does a better job with cost-control and health outcomes because their system is based on a primary-care foundation,” says Michael Springer, vice president for publishing and communications at the AAFP. “It’s essential to building a healthy system.”
The academy is also running the ads in USA Today, the Washington Times, Fortune, and on National Public Radio and various business-related websites. It also plans to advertise in Roll Call and Congressional Quarterly.
The campaign is scheduled to end just before the November elections.—Kim Kiser
Testing Dr. Nurse
Last month, the Council for the Advancement of Comprehensive Care and the National Board of Medical Examiners announced plans to develop and administer a certification examination for doctors of nursing practice (DNPs).
The exam will be similar to Step 3 of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination. It will be administered for the first time in November 2008.
Doctor of nursing practice programs have been springing up at universities around the country since the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) voted in 2004 to make the DNP degree necessary for advanced practice nursing by 2015.
According to the AACN website, 70 universities have DNP programs. Four are in Minnesota: the College of St. Catherine, the College of St. Scholastica, the University of Minnesota, and Winona State University.
Candidates for DNP certification must be licensed as advanced practice nurses, graduate from a DNP program, and pass the certification exam.
Sound Familiar?
It’s an unfortunate coincidence that interest in geriatric practice is dwindling just as the baby boomer generation is going gray.
According to “Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce,” a new report by the Institute of Medicine, the first of the nation’s 78 million baby boomers is expected to reach age 65 in 2011. The country has approximately 7,100 physicians certified in geriatric medicine—a specialty that has struggled to attract newcomers because of the need for training beyond residency and low pay.
The report, which called the situation “an impending crisis,” made a number of recommendations for changing the way care is delivered in order to meet the anticipated demand. Some echo other ideas for reinvigorating primary care.
In addition to training all health care providers to work with older patients, the institute recommends:
- Expanding the duties of certified nursing assistants in order to give nurses more time to attend to patients with complex needs;
- Increasing the Medicare reimbursement rates for geriatricians in order to make the field more attractive to physicians coming out of residency; and
- Encouraging new models of care that pay for chronic disease management, preventive services, and collaboration with other providers rather than focus on fixing short-term medical problems.
The report’s authors would like to see the reforms take place by 2030, the year by which the last of the baby boomers will have turned 65.
Weighing the Cost
Obese employees cost private companies in the United States an estimated $45 billion annually in medical expenditures and lost work time, according to a new report by The Conference Board. The report also states that more than 40 percent of U.S. employers have implemented obesity-reduction programs and an additional 24 percent said they plan to start one this year.
Match Game
After years of declining interest on the part of graduating medical students, family medicine got a slight boost on this year’s Match Day. According to the National Resident Matching Program, 1,156 (7.6 percent) of U.S. medical school seniors matched to family medicine residency programs in 2008—up from 7.2 percent last year. In addition, more family practice residency slots were offered this year, reversing a nine-year decline.
The news for family medicine wasn’t as good in Minnesota. Of the 202 University of Minnesota Medical School seniors who entered the match, 30 (14.4 percent) chose family medicine, continuing nearly six years of waning interest. Only one of the 32 Mayo Medical School seniors who participated matched to a family medicine residency.
Overall, 25 percent of University of Minnesota seniors matched to family medicine, pediatrics, or med/peds residencies. Another 19 percent chose internal medicine (some of these will pursue a subspecialty).
Mayo Medical School saw the number of seniors pursuing primary care slip to a six-year low.