Check this out from Medscape Nurses: one stop autoimmune care in Pittsburgh. What a great concept! You can read the complete article here. (Sometimes sites like these require you to create a free password protected account to gain access.)
Closing the Care Gap in Autoimmune Disease
A new, first-in-kind center in Pittsburgh is addressing a major gap in medicine: the complex needs of patients with one or more autoimmune conditions, who typically see numerous specialists in an uncoordinated fashion and often remain undiagnosed and untreated for years.
The new $30 million Highmark/Allegheny Health Network (AHN) Autoimmunity Institute offers a distinct alternative by providing comprehensive multispecialty care in a one-stop setting, and also by conducting research into diagnostics, treatments, and care delivery.
The institute comprises four "centers of excellence" for the treatment of lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and celiac disease. But the facility's many specialists—including those from rheumatology, allergy/clinical immunology, pulmonary, dermatology, gastroenterology, nephrology, endocrinology, and cardiology—all work together to address the needs of patients with a wide variety of common, not-so-common, and sometimes unlabeled autoimmune conditions.
It's the design of the future, in my mind. It's getting doctors out of their offices. We consult with each other...
"What we're doing is unique. You will not find this kind of institute that has this kind of multidisciplinary, comprehensive approach to patient care along with research," says rheumatologist Susan Manzi, MD, MPH, chair, AHN Medicine Institute and director of the Lupus Center of Excellence.
Housed at Pittsburgh's West Penn Hospital, the Autoimmunity Institute fills about 48,000 square feet, including clinical, laboratory, and administrative space. There are 16 exam rooms surrounded by a large corridor, dubbed the "huddle hall," where the specialists, along with nurses, pharmacists, nutritionists, and other staff, meet to discuss management of individual patients. There are no private offices with shut doors.
"It's the design of the future, in my mind. It's getting doctors out of their offices. We consult with each other...Doctors don't typically do it because it's not convenient. We've made it convenient," Manzi says.
"It's designed as a new model of team-based care," says Autoimmunity Institute chair Joseph M. Ahearn, MD, who is also chief scientific officer for Allegheny Singer Research Institute at AHN and professor of medicine at Temple University's Pittsburgh branch.....continue reading here.
2 comments:
That's fantastic! Now we need one in the PNW.
What a great concept!
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