The Financial Cost of Interprofessional Ambulatory Training: What’s the Bottom Line?

Abstract

Background Team-based care is recommended as a building block of high-performing primary care but has not been widely adapted in training sites. Cost may be one barrier to a team-based approach. Objective We quantified incremental annual faculty and staff costs as well as potential cost savings associated with an interprofessional (IP) ambulatory training program compared to a traditional residency clinic at the same site. Methods Cost calculations for the 2017–2018 academic year were made using US Department of Labor median salaries by profession and divided by the number of residents trained per year. Cost implications of lower no-show rates were calculated by multiplying the difference in no-show rate by the number of scheduled appointments, and then by the weighted average of the reimbursement rate. Results A total of 1572 arrived appointments were seen by the 10 residents in the IP program compared with 8689 arrived appointments seen by 57 residents in the traditional clinic. The no-show rate was 11.5% (265 of 2311) in the IP program and 19.2% (2532 of 13 154) in the traditional clinic (P, .001). Total cost to the health system through higher staffing needs was $113,897, or $11,390 per trained resident. Conclusions Total costs of the IP model due to higher faculty and staff to resident ratios totaled $11,390 per resident per year. Understanding the faculty and staff costs and potential cost-saving opportunities associated with transformation to an IP model may assist in sustainability.