Physician and staff acceptance of care managers in primary care offices

Abstract

Introduction: Embedded care managers are increasingly implemented as part of the care team within primary care practices, yet previous studies have indicated variability in acceptance by physicians and staff. This study assesses the acceptability of care managers among staff and physicians within the Michigan Primary Care Transformation (MiPCT) demonstration. Methods: Care manager acceptance was measured using a web-based survey distributed to practices participating in the MiPCT demonstration. Results: Both physicians and staff reported high levels of care manager acceptance. Longer length of care manager employment at the practice, higher care manager FTE dedicated to care management, and care manager employed by practice were all significantly associated with care manager acceptance. Discussion: The MiPCT demonstration found high care manager acceptance across all care team members. The high level of acceptance may be due to the structures and processes developed by MiPCT to support implementation of care managers and the length of the intervention period. Conclusion: The MiPCT demonstration confirms that following three years of implementation, embedded care managers are acceptable to both physicians and staff within primary care practices. Importantly, embeddedness, or the amount of time care managers are located within practices, is associated with increased acceptance.