Columbia Primary Care Expands in Manhattan, Westchester

More than a dozen ColumbiaDoctors primary care providers are now practicing as the Primary Care Initiative continues to expand to new locations in New York City and Westchester County.

Initiated in 2019, Columbia Primary Care reaches patients across the New York metropolitan area where they live and provides access to Columbia’s world-class network of more than 2,000 medical specialists and NewYork-Presbyterian, the only hospital in New York City ranked in the top five by U.S. News & World Report.

“One of the strengths of primary care is that we develop relationships with our patients,” says David Buchholz, MD, the senior founding medical director of Columbia Primary Care. Dr. Buchholz joined ColumbiaDoctors in 2019; he previously served as medical director of provider and customer engagement at Premera Blue Cross near Seattle and as executive medical director of UCSF Primary Care in San Francisco before that.

Primary care doctors not only see patients when they are ill; they anticipate issues and help catch disease early when it is most treatable. 

“Having a primary care provider means having a team who is thinking of you and your health even when you’re not in our office, even when you’re not sick,” Dr. Buchholz says.

Along with a new location on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Columbia Primary Care Midtown opened in October at 51 W. 51st St. and will expand this year. In Westchester County, Columbia Primary Care pediatricians with a wealth of experience in the area began seeing patients in Tarrytown and Bronxville. Primary care physicians and nurse practitioners also are available on the Columbia University Irving Medical Center campus.

In the next three years, Columbia Primary Care aims to hire about 50 primary care providers and associated support staff and partner with specialty departments to better serve new patient populations.

With personal relationships between patients and providers critical in primary care, Dr. Buchholz and his team are using data to drive decisions about operations to maintain those relationships. The Columbia Primary Care scheduling model, for example, guarantees same-day or next-day access with the patient’s own provider, regardless of chief complaint. “Practices tend to focus on offering same-day sick visits, but bringing in patients for well visits or in-person or virtual visits for follow-ups enhances the relationship,” Dr. Buchholz says. “The access is attractive for patients, and providers feel good about the continuity and quality of care they are providing.”

New Manhattan locations on the Upper West Side, Chelsea, and the West Village are in the planning stages, along with a new site for adult and pediatric primary care in Tarrytown due to open in late summer.

“Patients not only want convenient access to primary care services, they also want—and should expect—excellent quality of care and a great patient experience,” Dr. Buchholz says. “My goal is to build high-functioning primary care practices that deliver on those expectations.”

 

More information: www.columbiadoctors.org/columbia-primary-care or 844-387-CARE (2273).