Western Connecticut Medical Group (WCMG) has entered into a collaborative partnership with American Family Care (AFC) to provide coordinated patient care. Patients from AFC”™s nine Fairfield County urgent care locations who require follow-up medical care will have improved access to primary and specialty care practices within WCMG.
Additionally, WCMG patients who are not suffering a medical emergency but require treatment during hours when WCMG”™s offices are not open ”” such as nights, weekends and holidays ”” will be made aware of the services available at AFC”™s urgent care clinics. For those WCMG patients who are treated at an AFC clinic, AFC will provide follow-up information back to the patient”™s WCMG physician to optimize care coordination.
Tom Kelly, president of AFC in Connecticut, said the group already had a working relationship through its three Danbury locations with WCMG, whose specialty care physicians provide advanced diagnostic and treatment services through Danbury, Norwalk and New Milford Hospitals. The partners did not disclose any financial details.
Besides providing standard urgent care, AFC seeks to “get people off the couch and into the health care system,” Kelly said. “Almost half the people we see do not have a primary care physician.”
In addition, the company works to align patients with “the right primary care physician for them,” with attention paid not only to medical conditions, but also to age and demographics, Kelly said.
Executive Director, WCMG and Senior Vice President, Physician Strategy, Western Connecticut Health Network Richard Gemming said the move was made to ensure that WCMG patients receive suitable care in the after-hours. “We have night-nurse and tele-health programs,” he said, “but this will help in those areas.”
The proximity of AFC”™s county offices played a factor in the alliance, he added. “You can”™t send someone from here to an urgent care in West Hartford. This relationship will provide the right care at the right time in the right place. It”™s an integral piece of our puzzle.”
AFC”™s other Fairfield County locations include offices in Fairfield, Norwalk, Shelton, Stamford and two in Bridgeport. It also has locations in New Britain, West Hartford and Vernon.
AFC has 200 medical centers and 600 in-network physicians caring for 3 million patients a year. The Birmingham, Alabama-based company has partnerships and affiliations with Baptist Health, Bon Secours and Vanderbilt Health, as well as other health networks across the U.S.
