Primary care goes up against the healthcare disruptors

Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips speaks with Sashi Moodley at HIMSS24.

Photo: Susan Morse/HFN

ORLANDO – The future of primary care and how retailers are disrupting the traditional experience was the focus of a fireside chat between Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, chief physician executive at Press Ganey and Sashi Moodley, chief medical officer at Walgreens.

Phillips, former president of Clinical Care for Providence St. Joseph Health, drilled down on the difference between traditional primary care providers and what retailers such as Walgreens offer to patients during the session, "How healthcare disruptors are Changing the Landscape."

Moodley said he envisions a future in which Walgreens customers who use its healthcare clinics and MedExpress urgent care centers in Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia, will become more lifelong patients. 

"We don't want to own hospitals," Moodley said. "That's where we really want to partner. We think we can be that connective tissue to bring systems together."

Compton-Phillips said physicians use the EHR as the connective tissue to link patients to care.

What if, she asked, a consumer goes to the Walgreens clinic for a headache that turns out to be a brain tumor?

"How are you integrating with health systems so care seems continuous?" she said.

Moodley said it depends on how a patient enters the system, whether it's through VillageMD or Shields, a specialty pharmacy that uses the health system's EHRs. He admits there are gaps.

"We still use eFax," he said.

"Most patients go to the pharmacy for low acuity needs," Moodley said. "Now we're trying to create a more seamless experience."

Chronically ill patients will need that interdisciplinary care team, he said. But value-based care will push towards the direction of whoever is paying for care.

"I don't think we want to replace primary care," Moodley said, but added that primary care is suffering. "We see ourselves as complementing and augmenting primary care."

Moodley said, "We already work with health systems in a partnership approach. Now, we're trying to go deeper. In five years, it will be a true healthcare destination. We made the investments, trying to make the model more of a healthcare partner in their healthcare journey."

What patients want will help determine the direction of care.

"Patients," said Compton-Phillips, "want great health and compassionate care easily delivered."

Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org

 
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