Health

Health Care Resource Guide • 2016 – 2017 9 Fitchburg & Leominster Our Locations Urgent Care Fitchburg HealthAlliance Hospital - Burbank Campus 275 Nichols Road Fitchburg, MA 01420 ● 978-343-5072 Monday - Sunday: 9am to 6:30pm Urgent Care Leominster 510 North Main Street Leominster, MA 01453 ● 978-466-8820 Monday - Friday: 8am to 8pm Saturday & Sunday: 9am to 5pm UMass Memorial - HealthAlliance Hospital Urgent Care Centers provide convenient walk-in services for individuals of all ages. Our dedicated clinical teams provide exceptional care for everyone. • No appointments needed • Open weekends & extended hours • Lower cost compared to emergency room visits • Onsite Lab & Radiology (X-Ray) services • Most insurance plans accepted • Free Parking We treat non-life threatening illnesses and injuries such as: • Minor burns or injuries • Coughs, colds, and sore throats • Ear infections • Allergic reactions (non life-threatening) • Dehydration (Fitchburg location only) • Fever or flu-like symptoms Visit www.healthalliance.com or urgentcareleominster.com for more information. • Rash or other skin irritations • Sprains and strains • Broken bones • Mild asthma • Animal bites was cool," Elsawy said. Actually, that's one of the reasons he wanted to join Reliant. "We have a lot of resources dedicated towards making sure that we do things to keep people healthy, and get them all the appropriate screenings. But then when they do get sick, we have programs in place that allow for coordination of care to happen," he said. Population health management is tied to a team-based approach to health care, where a patient's care is managed by several members of a team, not just one doctor. Reliant has been moving towards that strategy for years. The most recent example of that came in early 2016, with the opening of a model cell at Reliant's Plantation Street offices in Worcester. In the model cell, doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses and medical assistants work next to each other in an open office space that directly adjoins patient rooms. It's called a model cell because in a lot of ways it's an experiment – every- thing is mobile, and patients and providers can give feedback on what works and what doesn't in order to create a better caregiving blueprint going forward. Help wanted: Doctors But it's not just about the patients. The provider shortage referenced by Naravene is having a very real effect on healthcare systems across the country, and slowing down the transition into population health management, Elsawy said. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates the medical profes- sion will face a shortage of 12,500 to 31,000 primary care physicians by 2025. Elsawy said Reliant's collaborative care model, which allows multiple people to work together on the same patient, will make it an attractive place to work for providers. Already, providers who work in the model cell seem empowered by the collaborative environment. And accolades help – Reliant has been named to Becker's Healthcare "150 Great Places to Work in Healthcare" and has been honored as one of the Boston Globe's top places to work. "Our model is really based on team-based care. And the ability to have most people work within a group setting and feel like 'I'm not the only one responsi- ble for your care, there's an entire team of folks doing it,' makes it much much more appealing," he said. Keeping doctors engaged By choosing to work for an independent group versus a larger, hospital- based healthcare network, physicians may have a bit more sovereignty, said Katie Gilfillan, director of healthcare finance policy, physician and clinical practice at the Healthcare Financial Management Association in Westchester, Illinois. "Independent medical groups may offer their physicians more influence and ownership in practice operations," said Gilfillan. "As a result, physicians work- ing for the independent group are more invested or incentivized in ensuring the group is successful from a financial perspective, and the group may find it easier to align physicians toward organizational goals." A second model cell opened in July, and Elsawy said Reliant plans to repli- cate this model even further as it expands in Central Massachusetts and MetroWest. Reliant will choose facilities that can accommodate the model cell structure, he said. "To be able to show the cost benefit value proposition to patients in terms of quality outcomes, in terms of patient experience, in terms of what the total societal costs are by implementing that team care model – that's something where I think we're significantly further along than most other organizations," he said. "But the trick is the scalability." n Dr. Thad Schilling, chief of primary care and car transformation at Reliant Medical Group, is one of the doctors who works in the model cell, which Elsawy sees as the new innovative way of delivering efficient care to patients.

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