Block Island Times

Talking points for enhanced primary care and triage of non-emergencies

Block Island is home to more than 1,000 year-round residents with more than 400 aged greater than 65 years old. There is an opportunity to increase the quality of primary longitudinal care for our residents and bring the spirit of a patient-centered medical practice home to the island.
The U.S. has established a foundation of comprehensive and longitudinal primary care to ensure health care coverage for everyone. States that rely more on primary care have better quality-of-care outcomes and there are key foundational pieces to a well-crafted primary-care infrastructure as spelled out below.Access and continuityBlock Island Health Services offers more than 40 hours weekly, year-round, for scheduled primary care and disease management. This affords the continuity of services that our community deserves and we strive to improve the experience each week.BIHS is available 24 hours per day, 365 days a year, for emergency services.Planned care and population healthBIHS providers agree strongly with national movements that proactive outreach to populations with chronic diseases such as diabetes, COPD, HTN, heart disease and others, is essential to a healthy community. This concept also avoids unnecessary health deterioration and hospitalizations for patients.Care managementBIHS is working towards adding care management services for patients.

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