The survey also attempted to correlate profitability with the number of patient visits. The data were not easy to interpret. In general it seemed that the small proportion of programs (just 0.3%, or 17) that had more than 5,000 patient visits a year were the most likely to be making a profit, but even then only 18% were doing so. Of programs with 2,001–5,000 patient visits a year, 10% were making a profit; 48% were operating at a loss, Ms. Austin reported.
“We're trying to [determine] whether it's size or number of visits that makes a difference in terms of profitability. Right now we're having a difficult time figuring it all out, but it looks like nobody is really operating at full profit with no loss. Everyone's operating at some loss, but once you get over 5,000 [patients a year], you're losing less than everyone else.”
Another worrisome trend elicited from this year's survey was a slight downturn in the amount of clinical data collected and reported since 2005, with 12% of programs not collecting any outcome measures. “It wasn't significant, but it's something we need to keep an eye on. We don't know … whether it's a staffing issue, time, or something else,” Ms. Austin said.
A question added for the first time in 2007 concerned use of the chronic care model, which has been adopted by the AADE. In response to the question, “Are you interacting with providers who are using a chronic care model?” 37% said yes, 32% said no, and 31% answered I don't know. However, when asked if they were familiar with the McColl Institute chronic care model that has been endorsed by AADE, only 23% said yes. More information is available at www.improvingchroniccare.com