An interview with Drs. Rachel Masel-Miller and Satyajeet Roy.
Posted by Satyajeet Roy, MD, FACP and Rachel Masel-Miller, DO on December 16, 2022
Cooper ACO congratulates the Internal Medicine office team at 1103 North Kings Highway, Cherry Hill for exceeding the goals in successful completion of 2021 Annual Wellness Visits.
An interview with Drs. Rachel Masel-Miller and Satyajeet Roy.
How did you engage patients?
“Patient engagement is the most important element,” says Dr. Rachel Masel-Miller. “We discussed with our patients about the value of developing a personalized prevention plan that assesses their current health and identifies health goals for the coming year.”
What is the value of the annual wellness visit to patients?
“The suggestion of being eligible for a free annual comprehensive health check, intrigued our patients who came for a 15-minute follow-up, or an acute visit,” explains Dr. Satyajeet Roy. “It is hard for the elderly patients to understand the value of AWV, and we took time to explain the value of comprehensive care that not only addresses chronic and acute problems, but also incorporates screening tools that allow clinicians to modify and manage their risk factors and prevent hospitalizations, or death.”
What was the key to your success?
“The key to our success is that the clinicians and office staff regularly discuss the importance of primary prevention and completion of AWVs with our patients,” explains Dr. Masel-Miller. “Barriers at both, the patient and clinician level, are identified to help increase adherence with AWVs. Patients who miss their scheduled appointments receive follow-up phone calls to reschedule, and the clinicians receive reminders under the visit appointment comments.”
“At the end of each encounter, we add next AWV due date at the follow-up comment. We also monitor weekly list of patients who are eligible for AWVs and designate staff to reach out regularly to patients to schedule their AWVs,” explains Dr. Roy. Dr. Masel-Miller adds, “We created a sustainable workflow in our office that allowed us to achieve 74% compliance with AWVs in 2021. We look forward to continuing to promote wellness and improving our compliance with AWVs in 2022.”
