Feasibility of Care Coordination in an Integrative Primary Care Concierge Practice

The Duke Integrative Primary Care (DIPC) clinic in Durham, North Carolina currently serves over 600 patients, and offers a full range of primary care services. The practice is a fee-based model where patients pay a monthly fee to access primary care services, and includes several membership benefits. These benefits include longer appointment times, visits with physicians trained in integrative medicine, access to the Duke Health and Fitness Center, on-site discounts, and use of facilities at Duke Integrative Medicine.

Preliminary information gathered show that DIPC members state reasons of value, cost and underutilization for cancelling their memberships. Underutilized primary care memberships may represent missed opportunities to increase patient satisfaction, improve patient outcomes, and maximize clinic revenue.

DIPC employs an administrative coordinator responsible for assisting patients with enrolling and renewing their primary care memberships, but to date, there has not been a clinical care coordinator role in the DIPC clinic.

This study will provide the basis for understanding the feasibility of incorporating care coordination into the Duke Integrative Primary Care practice. In addition, cost and effort of the care coordinator will be compared to additional volume, revenue and patient satisfaction data to increase understanding of the value proposition. Further, information gathered during this study could suggest possible impact on membership retention rates, as well as inform next steps for continuous improvement initiatives for the integrative primary care practice.

Primary aim: To determine feasibility of incorporating a PCC into an integrative concierge primary care practice.