Most of you know that the Duke Family Medicine Center is part of Duke’s Private Diagnostic Clinic (PDC). This organization is home to the “practice plan” for Duke faculty clinicians. The PDC has recently named new leadership, and that leadership has set out to complete a strategic planning process across the entire PDC. Each clinical department has been asked to participate in that process, and Community and Family Medicine has done so.
You may recall seeing a survey that was sent across the entire department, not just to the Division of Family Medicine. We included staff and faculty in that process, and asked for input from everyone because we believe that our clinical enterprise does not function as a standalone unit. We are a part of the fabric of the department, partnering with our sister divisions (Community Health, Physician Assistant Program and Occupational & Environmental Medicine) to provide outstanding care to and for our community. So we wanted everyone’s input.
We reviewed all the responses to our survey, specifically focusing on the things you thought we should “do more of,” “stop doing,” or “start doing.” Your collective responses, and our leadership review of the opportunities all around us, helped us craft a five-year strategic plan. There are three core principles that drive that plan. They are:
- The PDC Family Medicine practice will be a leader in primary care innovation and practice improvement, in order to deliver outstanding care for our patients, lower health care costs, and support our providers in finding meaning and purpose in their work.
- We will be a resource to the PDC enterprise, sharing knowledge, experience and skills in practice innovation, population health improvement and patient panel management across the enterprise.
- We will explore ways to grow our own practice footprint within PDC, and to expand the primary care base for the enterprise. We have a strong desire to explore expanded and alternative practice locations and models of care delivery that will deliver value for patients and payers, and to explore the continued viability of our status as a hospital-based clinic.
Copies of the strategic plan are available upon request. Anyone interested in reading the full plan can contact Kaye Gardner at kaye.gardner@duke.edu.
I will extend my particular thanks to John Ragsdale, M.D., medical director of Duke Family Medicine Center, and Justine Strand de Oliveira, DrPH, PA-C, vice chair for education, for their help in putting this plan together. If you have questions or just want to talk about the vision of the future for our practice, please come see me. Thank you again for all your input.
Sharon Hull is division chief of the Division of Family Medicine. Emailsharon.hull@duke.edu with questions.
Editor’s note: Dr. Hull guest blogs the first Friday of every month.