MELANIE BLAKE
INNOVATION IN HEALTH CARE AWARD
Someone once told Dr. Melanie Blake that the truest test of a doctor-in-the-making is: “If you can’t imagine doing anything else.”
The daughter of a cardiovascular nurse and a dentist, Dr. Blake, 39, has become the embodiment of that theory. She is this year’s recipient in the “Innovation in Health Care” category for her work advancing a patient-centered approach to primary care.
In her spare time, Dr. Blake, a native of Birmingham and a former college athlete at Florida State University, is a national champion Masters sprint hurdler — which is an apt metaphor for her work at Erlanger, clearing hurdles through grit and focus.
Blake, who spends half her time in her medical practice and half her time on administrative duties, has been instrumental in helping retool many of the practices in Erlanger Medical Group. A new model, called Patient-Centered Medical Homes (or PCMH, for short) emphasizes improving patient outcomes and giving physicians more time for patient care by lifting some of their administrative duties.
The PCMH care model aims to consolidate health care functions under one delivery system, hence the “home” analogy. Such a practice combines traditional doctors and nurses along with pharmacists, nutritionists, social workers and care coordinators. It’s multi-faceted care that takes into account the “whole person,” experts say.
This team approach means that patients aren’t left on their own to navigate the sometimes confusing and overlapping health-care system. Instead, patients are led down a path to better follow-ups and outcomes.
“For example, we have a social worker and a pharmacist and a care coordinator,” Dr. Blake explains. “If (a patient) misses their cardiologist appointment (and needs to reschedule), we can facilitate that. Or if they go in the hospital we call them to follow up on how they are doing.”
Part of the transition is building a system of integrated medicine to improve outcomes, says Dr. Blake, who also has a master’s degree in business. At one point the Erlanger team converted 15 practices in 18 months, a herculean task.
“We started looking at quality measures,” Dr. Blake says of the Erlanger PCMH model. “Some (practices) were doing really well on diabetic control and blood pressure, and some weren’t doing well at all. It had a lot to do with geography and resources. It also had to do with communicating with patients and getting them in more often.”