Episode 536

Operationalizing the Architecture of Primary Care Patient Experience, With Rebecca Andrews, MD

Episode Description

Real Team-Based Care vs. Team-Based Care in Name Only: A Primary Care Redesign Playbook. Episode 536.

Talk is cheap — and so is team-based care in name only. Stacey Richter talks with Rebecca Andrews, MD, professor of medicine, director of primary care, and lead for patient-centered medical homes at the University of Connecticut, about what it means for primary care to be architected for value, not just marketed as value. If you're a plan sponsor buying primary care, or a clinician looking for hope that our healthcare system is not, in fact, intractably broken, this episode shows what real team-based care looks like and how to spot the fake.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✅ Why plan sponsors get the maximum benefit from advanced primary care only when that care is structurally architected to deliver real clinical value

✅ What is not team-based care: adding medical assistants, nurses, and mid-levels without defined roles, or having a physician "supervise" nine to 12 mid-levels by signing off on notes, a model Dr. Andrews says shows up in private equity

✅ What true team-based care looks like: clear job descriptions, state-compliant processes, standing orders, and the right care in the right setting by the right person at the right time

✅ How pharmacists, nurses, and protocol-driven phone triage can free up physician capacity and improve access, and why Dr. Andrews says team-based care can solve some, though not all, of the PCP shortage

✅ Why physician-led leadership, trust, and unrushed schedules matter, and how lack of access turns primary care into a referral machine

✅ Dr. Andrews' redesign playbook: step back and study what you change, build and foster your team, and know the reimbursement options, including Medicare transitional care management

WHY THIS MATTERS

Echoing Dr. Lisa Rosenbaum's warning in EP519, the more we treat our healthcare problems as intractable and unfixable, the more of our own agency we give away. Plan sponsors won't get real team-based primary care unless they demand it and vote with their feet if they don't get it, and buyers need clinical teams who really work this way to buy from. As Dr. Andrews puts it, even with millions and billions of dollars thrown at the healthcare system the problem isn't solved: it's not all about money, it's about design, and we have to be intentional.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

EP534 with Kimberly Carleson: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps

EP519 with Lisa Rosenbaum, MD: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps

EP535 with Robyn Leone: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps

EP341 with Gary Campbell: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps

EP492 with Sam Flanders, MD, and Shane Cerone: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps

Article: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Simply Psychology

LinkedIn Post by Stacy Mays

EP485 with Cristin Dickerson, MD: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps

EP523 with Suhas Gondi, MD, MBA: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps

Website: American College of Physicians advocacy

LinkedIn Profile: Rebecca Andrews, MD