Ideas about health care are continuously evolving. One vision shared by many, is a medical future characterized by team-based patient care.
As explained by this piece in the NY Times, this vision would involve converting traditional medical centers to "patient centered medical homes," where patients are seen by a team of doctors rather than just one individual. This team of doctors would also focus on cost cutting measures like preventative care. The overall goal of this vision is to create efficient, high quality care at an affordable price.
Sounds nice right? Unfortunately this dream is not yet a reality. 36 small practices tried to make this conversion and have run into a number of issues. The primary issue being the time and difficulty of converting traditional medical centers into patient centered medical homes. Eventually, I believe this will become a reality for the U.S. health care system. It just needs more time.
After reading the article and my post, what issues do you see arising with team based care? It sounds nice on paper... but will it work in a real setting?
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