By Eric Bricker MD
Specifically, the 88 mostly primary care doctors of Tryon Medical Partners sued Atrium Health, the hospital system that owned them, in order to leave and become independent in 2018.
Some of their grievances against the hospital system were:
1. The hospital replaced the nurses in their clinics with medical assistants.
2. The hospital increased the number of patients they needed to see per day and decreased their visit times.
Atrium agreed to let the doctors separate in exchange for dropping the lawsuit.
Just one year later Tryon Medical Partners began to offer Direct Primary Care to local employers and have signed up 30 companies. The program has been a huge success because an independent primary care practice can work to provide better care at lower costs. Conversely, physicians associated with a hospital system are incentivized to increase healthcare costs.
