Part of the benefits of being in a residency clinic is that I get to shadow our fantastic FM residents in their clinics. This afternoon I was shadowing one of the residents and was completely blown away and in "aww" of primary care and behavioral health integration.
Out of the four patients I shadowed, two initiated handoffs to our BH team and one had previously seen a BHC in the past week. In the last visit observed, the patient was a male who had presented to the ER for complications related to CHF and COPD. He had no primary care provider assigned and while admitted to the hospital, left AMA shortly after.
Somehow though, the patient had made a connection with the resident I was observing today during the ER visit. Somehow, that connection prompted him to present for an ambulatory outpatient visit a month ago. Somehow the resident was able to work with the patient on starting medication for his HTN and other chronic conditions. Somehow the patient lost over 35 pounds in a month and returned for another office visit. Somehow, the patient, who endorsed a number of ACEs and was a little "rough around the edges," had been inspired to lose weight. Somehow, a guy that would never, ever, in a million years, step foot into a mental health office was open to seeing a BHC based on the recommendation of the resident.
As I debriefed with the resident, we talked about how amazing of a story it was and how primary care, particularly in CHCs, as well as family medicine and PCBH in general, allow, somehow, for stories like this to occur...