Terry K. Re-engineer your practice—starting today. Medical Economics. Jan 2000:175-188.

This article highlights some success stories with implementation of Advanced Access, as well as other office practice redesigns through work within the IHI-led Redesign of the Clinical Office Practice Collaborative. 

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Smith J. Redesigning health care: Radical redesign is a way to radically improve. British Medical Journal. May 2001;322:1257-1258.

This editorial describes the goals of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Idealized Design of Clinical Office Practices project, and highlights the results of some of the teams involved.

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Bodenheimer T, Lo B, Casalino L. Primary care physicians should be coordinators, not gatekeepers. Journal of the American Medical Association. Jun 1999;281(21):2045-2049.

This articles describes the increasing role of primary care physicians (PCPs) as gatekeepers to reduce costs in the system. The article argues that this is not a good system, however, the alternative of open access to a specialist is also flawed. The authors recommend that the PCP act as a coordinator as opposed to a gatekeeper.

Chesanow N. Reengineering your practice: Pick the team, and write the game plan. Medical Economics. Feb 2000:75-84.

This article provides tips to redesigning the care team to improve satisfaction and productivity within office practices. 

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Plauth AE, Pearson SD. Discontinuity of care: Urgent care utilization within a health maintenance organization. American Journal of Managed Care. Nov 1998;4(11):1531-1537.

This article describes a study to determine the demographic characteristics, attitudes, and perceived barriers to primary care reported by patients seen in the urgent care department of a health maintenance organization (HMO) health center.  The study shows that patients treated in urgent care would have preferred to see their primary care physicians but were unable to get an appointment.  The study concludes that improving same-day access could greatly improve this situation.

Plauth AE, Pearson SD. Discontinuity of care: Urgent care utilization within a health maintenance organization. American Journal of Managed Care. Nov 1998;4(11):1531-1537.

This article describes a study to determine the demographic characteristics, attitudes, and perceived barriers to primary care reported by patients seen in the urgent care department of a health maintenance organization (HMO) health center.  The study shows that patients treated in urgent care would have preferred to see their primary care physicians but were unable to get an appointment.  The study concludes that improving same day access could greatly improve this situation.

Boelke C, Boushon B, Isensee S. Achieving open access: The road to improved service and satisfaction. Medical Group Management Journal. Sept/Oct 2000;47(5):58-62, 64-66, 68.

This article discusses the concept of open access, developed in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Access Collaborative in conjunction with Mark Murray, MD, and Catherine Tantau. The article also describes Dean Medical Center's experiences implementing open access in their organization.

Bodenheimer T, Lorig K, Holman H, Grumbach K. Patient self-management of chronic disease in primary care. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2002;288(19):2469-2475.

This article makes the case for educating patients with chronic conditions in self-management techniques. The authors believe, and clinical trials have shown, that including self-management education in patient care can improve outcomes and reduce costs.

Randolph GD, Murray M, Swanson JA, Margolis PA. Behind schedule: Improving access to care for children one practice at a time. Pediatrics. Mar 2004;113(3):230-237.

This article makes a case for improving access to care for children through improving practice scheduling systems.  The authors believe that some of the best interventions to improve children's access to care involve improving primary care scheduling systems.

Like RC, Betancourt JR, Kountz DS, Lu FG, Rios E. Multicultural medicine: Confronting the challenges in primary care. Medical Crossfire. 2001 Dec;3(12):32-43.

In this Medical Crossfire report, a panel of national experts was gathered for a live event to discuss the many issues surrounding multicultural medicine. Many initiatives promoting minority health and reducing disparity are underway. This panel speaks about the impact of the initiatives and primary care providers.

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