Daniella Zipkin, MD, associate professor of medicine (General Internal Medicine) shared this report about the Ambulatory Care Leadership Track residents' recent trip to meet with legislators in the North Carolina General Assembly:
Residents in the Ambulatory Care Leadership Track traveled to Raleigh on March 4 for an advocacy day at the N.C. General Assembly. Trainees met with N.C. House and N.C. Senate health care leadership, including Dr. Robin Cummings, N.C. Medicaid Director; Rep. Nelson Dollar (R – Wake); Rep. Donny Lambeth (R – Forsyth); Rep. Marilyn Avila (R – Wake); Sen. Fletcher Hartsell (R – Cabarrus); and Sen. Mike Woodard (D – Durham).
Residents shared outcomes from the Duke Outpatient Clinic’s HomeBASE program, a collaborative, team-based care model between our patients, nurse case managers, physicians, mental health providers, and social workers.
The HomeBASE program, led by DOC's medicine-psychiatry attending Natasha Cunningham, MD, nurse case manager Marigny Manson, Julia Gamble, NP, and Jan Dillard, MSW, targets patients with mental health comorbidities and excessive ED usage, successfully shifting the focus of care to the clinic setting.
The ACLT residents, including Matthew Atkins, MD; Jacob Feigal, MD; Ryan Jessee, MD; Claire Kappa, MD; Adrienne Klement, MD; Amy Jones, MD; James Lefler, MD; Dinushika Mohottige, MD; and Aaron Mitchell, MD, chief resident for quality improvement and patient safety at the Durham VA, showcased the effectiveness of this program and encouraged state lawmakers to pursue provider-led accountable care reform to help control health care costs and improve outcomes for patients.
Residents also shared patient’s stories in an effort to make their struggles come to life for legislators. Overall, the residents were very well received at the Capitol and found the experience both powerful and illuminating.
See the one-page “leave behind” that the ACLT created for legislators here.
The HomeBASE program is part of the overall DOC redesign implemented in July 2013. Led by Adia Ross, MD, MHA; Alex Cho, MD, MBA, assistant professor of medicine (General Internal Medicine); Lynn Bowlby, MD, associate professor of medicine (General Internal Medicine); David Zaas, MD, MBA, president of Duke Raleigh Hospital; Aimee Zaas, MD, MHS, associate professor of medicine (Infectious Diseases) and director, Internal Medicine Residency Program, and many others, the DOC redesign will be presented at Medicine Grand Rounds on March 20.