Molina, Carolina Stefany Paredes

Objective: To evaluate the impact of a registered nurse (RN)-led Medicare annual wellness visit (AWV) on preventive services in a family medicine clinic. Patients and Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed on patients who underwent an RN-led AWV and patients who underwent a standard assessment (SA) between October 2017 and October 2018. A total of 630 patients (330 AWV and 300 SA) were included in this study. Results: There were seven preventive services examined for in women and five preventive services examined for in men. Each service was used more often by patients in the AWV group than the SA group (all odds ratios ≥1.64; all P values ≤.004). Conclusion: The RN-led AWV is an effective way to assist Medicare beneficiaries in meeting their preventive needs while allowing physicians more time to focus on chronic and acute needs.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is taking a massive toll on health care systems globally. We developed the COVID-19 virtual clinic (CVC) in conjunction with drive through testing to cope with this situation. There are two arms of the CVC: (1) a screening arm and (2) positive patient arm. Screening is performed over the phone based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention screening guideline. Positive patients are followed at regular intervals by video appointments where concerns can be addressed by a provider while also tracking symptom progression. We enrolled 63 positive patients out of 1,153 screened for COVID-19 as of this writing. The CVC continues to address patients' concerns and symptoms in an effort to minimize emergency department and hospital patient volumes, as incidence increases. Drive through testing in conjunction with a virtual clinic allows us to provide high-quality care in an anxious time without consuming excessive personal protective equipment or unnecessarily exposing health care workers. This article could serve as a model to guide other practices to cope with this and future pandemics.