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November 19, 2008Primary care provides patients with better outcomes at lower cost |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A white paper, How is a Shortage of Primary Care Physicians Affecting the Quality and Cost of Medical Care?, released today by the American College of Physicians (ACP) documents the value of primary care by reviewing 20 years of research. An annotated bibliography based on a literature review of more than 100 studies documents the evidence to support the critical importance of primary care in providing patients with better outcomes at lower cost, and the urgency of the need to prevent shortages of primary care physicians. "The evidence for the value of primary care is clear," said Jeffery P. Harris, MD, FACP, president of ACP. "It manifests itself in better quality of life, more productive longevity, and lower costs as a result of reduced hospitalization, improved prevention and better coordination of chronic disease care. The ACP paper notes that policymakers are more likely to take the steps necessary to assure a sufficient primary care workforce if they are aware of the research on the importance of primary care to a high-performing health care system. ACP calls on the federal government, large employers and other purchasers, health plans, and the medical profession itself to take immediate action to create a comprehensive national health-care workforce policy. In addition to this white paper, ACP is developing a new policy paper to provide a comprehensive set of recommendations to assure that the supply of primary care physicians is sufficient to meet current and future needs. ACP members include 126,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students.
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