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28th Annual Families
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Dear Family Medicine Colleagues:
The New Model of family medicine practice envisioned in the Future of Family Medicine report, embodying the essential elements of the patient-centered medical home which all three primary care disciplines have now embraced, is our collective destination. We are all challenged to upgrade our classic family medicine concepts of the patient-centered, family-oriented, and community-responsive practice by creatively incorporating the following specific characteristics:
• whole-person [integrative] orientation
• care provided within a [culturally-sensitive] community context
• elimination of barriers to access
• redesigned offices
• advanced information systems
• an emphasis on quality and safety
• the commitment to provide family medicine’s full basket of services
• enhanced practice finance
In order to achieve successful transformative renovations to our clinical and educational environments in order to create new medical homes, we will all need to attend to the following principles:
- Identify Shared Values and Goals, whether already held by, or newly developed collectively by,
those within our work-families;
- Implement Systemic Change, addressing not just our structures and processes but our communications and metrics for teamwork and outcomes; and
- Think and Link Creatively, not just within our practices, but “outside the box,” collaborating in novel and evolving ways with patients, families, communities, and payers.
Our three plenary speakers for the 28th Annual STFM Conference on Families and Health will address these three operating principles for change. Susan Frampton, PhD, president of Planetree, a non-profit organization that has assisted many hospitals and physician practices in becoming truly family and patient centered, will address the critical, participatory first steps in initiating a change in mission and culture within an organization. William Miller, MD, chair of Family Medicine at Lehigh Valley Hospital and a member of the Center for Research in Family Medicine and Primary Care, will address the findings from years of research on the organizational dynamics of practice change, elaborating for us the Impact Model of Systemic Practice Change. Finally, Susan Nelson, MD and colleagues from the Harbor of Health practice in Memphis, Tenn (one of the facilitated practices in the TransforMed project) will share their experiences in creating novel approaches to teaming with families and the community in funding and building their family-centered and health promotion-focused practice.
In addition, an exciting array of workshops, seminars, lecture-discussions, and peer sessions will provide conference attendees with many exciting ideas and clinical and educational models presented by STFM colleagues from across the country. These stimulating presentations will span topics ranging from restructuring into teams for providing care, to programs to improve the health of the health care team members themselves, to the restructuring of the healthcare system in post-Katrina Louisiana around primary care and the Medical Home concept. We will also hear from New Orleans family physicians whose personal “stories of recovery” of practice serving their communities will be an inspiration to all. We will provide opportunity for conference attendees to contribute directly to the ongoing rebuilding efforts by organizing a volunteer community service activity during the Friday afternoon “free time,” as well as on Wednesday as an optional “preconference” service activity for those who desire to do so. (More details will be shared on both of these activities in the near future.)
Do not miss this timely opportunity to share your ideas and vision, while also learning from others’ experiences and visions, for the transformation of our practices and training centers into the New Model, truly family-friendly, patient-centered medical homes.
Robert Cushman, MD
2008 Conference Chair