More than just a "year off"

I moved to Washington, DC and started work at the Primary Care Coalition (PCC) back in July, and so far, it’s been a great experience. I’m currently serving as project coordinator for PCC’s Emergency Department-Primary Care Connect Program, a state-funded initiative aimed at reducing avoidable emergency department use in Montgomery County, Maryland. I’ve been working with physicians and staff at hospitals and clinics throughout the county to develop and evaluate a process for referring low-income uninsured patients from hospital emergency rooms to community health centers for follow-up care. It’s been fascinating to learn about the challenges faced by uninsured patients seeking medical care and to observe the fragmentation of the US healthcare system firsthand. It’s a very exciting time to be working in healthcare improvement, particularly in Washington, DC, and I’ve enjoyed learning about the ways in which hospitals, insurance providers, and healthcare organizations in the Metro DC area and around the country are working to comply with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as healthcare reform).

Like a significant minority of P55 fellows, I chose the Project 55 fellowship program as a way to spend my gap year between graduation and professional school (in my case, medical school) – but it’s safe to say that this has been much more than a just a “year off.” In the two months since I started work, I’ve learned an incredible amount about the current healthcare system and the ways in which it is being (and could still be) improved. I know that my experiences at PCC this year will definitely influence my ability to empathize with low-income uninsured patients and my perspective on healthcare delivery, both during medical school and throughout my career as a physician. It’s also great to know that the work I’m doing is having a measurable impact on the health of the patients PCC is serving – by providing our patients with “medical homes” at primary care clinics and reducing their use of emergency rooms, we’re improving the quality, consistency, and cost-effectiveness of the healthcare they receive. I’m looking forward to everything else I’m going to be able to learn and to accomplish in the rest of my time at PCC.

Before I end my post, I want to express my appreciation for the Princeton AlumniCorps team here in DC. They’ve been great about providing us (the DC fellows) with a network of new friends and mentors, organizing fun activities/events, and helping to ease our transition to our new jobs and to life in a new city. I think my adjustment to post-college life would have gone much less smoothly without the support of the Princeton network in general and the Princeton AlumniCorps program in particular – so thank you to everyone who makes this program possible!

To the other fellows – I hope your fellowships are going well, and I can’t wait to read more about the interesting and exciting things all of you are doing!