The anatomy of a primary care practice

A 10,000 patient primary care practice will have:

• 7-8 FTE primary care doctors

• 4 support staff per doctor (nurses, nurse practitioners, receptionist, billers, etc.)

This adds up to 30 to 35 staff to support 10,000 patients. Volume and maximizing billing is the game as complexities to interface with insurers + inflation increases costs every year. The PCPs can diagnose and manage ~1,500 typical primary care conditions within their population. Wait time is 14 days for an appointment and 1 hour in the waiting room. As their processes get more and more complex, they risk losing patients to the local urgent care center.

Now, let’s take 10,000 Sherpaa patients:

• 3 to 4 FTE primary care doctors

• 1 medical assistant

This adds up to 4 to 5 staff to support 10,000 patients. That’s it. Because a physical exam is rarely the missing piece of a diagnosis, Sherpaa PCPs can diagnose and manage ~1,450 typical primary care conditions (95% of office-based PCP capability). Wait time is ~20 minutes.

Rethinking the process and business model of care strips out ~30 staff (salaries and benefits) and enables a totally different solution, which enables a fundamentally less expensive cost.

The only way to save on costs is to buy something fundamentally different. Incremental differences won’t cut it.