Ted | Central City Concern

Ted Amann is the Director of Health Care and Improvement at Central City Concern's Old Town clinic, a community health center serving individuals in the Portland metro area who are negatively impacted by homelessness, poverty and addictions.  In the videos below, Ted speaks about CCC's move toward the Patient-Centered Primary Care Home approach to medicine, and their integration of mental health services into primary care.

 

 

 


Ted explains the make-up of the primary care teams, a foundational element of the Patient Centered Primary Care Home model, that operate at the Old Town Clinic. Each care team contains a cross-section of providers from all the disciplines and specialties provided at the clinic.

 

 

 

 


 

JavaScript is disabled!
To display this content, you need a JavaScript capable browser.

 

 

 

Ted stresses the importance and increasing acceptance of the need for integrating mental health services with primary care. He discusses some of the changes that have been made at the Old Town Clinic in an effort to reach that goal of integration.

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

Ted argues that consistent relationships over time result in better care and a better experience, both for the patient as well as the provider. He explains Central City Concern’s transition to assigning patients to small, primary care panels in an attempt to increase continuity of care. Ted cites some statistics to highlight the success they have had in this important element of the PCPCH model.

 

 

 


 

 

 

Ted describes Old Town Clinic’s attempts to establish multiple points of contact with their patients, a key element in the Patient Centered Primary Care Home model, but also calls attention to the increase in resources and work that are required to perform this type of care. He cites being “stuck” in an old funding model that still does not recognize this approach to primary care as one of the biggest challenges to the work they are doing at the Old Town Clinic.

 

 

 

 


Ted clearly states that it costs more money to provide primary care using the Patient Centered Primary Care Home model. Yet, the model becomes compelling when you realize the vast savings that come from keeping people out of the hospital and the emergency room.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Ted explains how small community clinics that focus on quality primary and preventative care reduce spending in the larger hospitals and emergency rooms, yet rarely directly benefit from those savings. He points to getting the insurers and payers involved in the model as a means to balance out the savings.

 

 

 

 

 


Ted acknowledges the work by Care Oregon to provide alternative payment mechanisms to support the implementation of this new, Patient Centered Primary Care Home model. Ted points out that private players in the broader health care world have taken notice and are testing out similar models in their commercial clinics.

 

 

 

 

 


Ted Amann highlights the diversity of Federally Qualified Health Centers that are currently implementing the Patient Centered Primary Care Home (PCPCH) model. He suggests that if the model can work across the spectrum of these clinics, it can work anywhere.