POCATELLO — Patient Quality Alliance would like to congratulate the Specialized Family Medical Clinic for its exemplary work in providing excellent care for its patients by concentrating on prevention.

PQA is a patient quality alliance in Southeast Idaho that is dedicated to improving quality and decreasing the cost of medical care. In 2024, PQA challenged all clinics in the network to provide as many annual wellness visits or exams as possible to their patients. Medicare and other insurers provide wellness visits without any cost to the patient as a benefit because they know how beneficial it is to be proactive in preventing and managing a person’s health.

The annual wellness visit, or exam, is designed to have the provider and patient meet, talk over age-appropriate health concerns, make sure immunizations and cancer screenings are up to date, and develop a yearly plan to manage the patient’s medical problems. These visits are the center of preventative care and key to decreasing costs of care for our communities and nation while improving quality of life for patients.

Specialized Family Medical Clinic was the top performer this second quarter in the PQA network, Pocatello Division 2 group of clinics. Specialized Family Medicine has excellent providers and staff that care deeply for each patient. That is why it is encouraging its patients to come in and be seen regularly to manage current medical problems and work on the prevention of other illnesses. This is the national trend and initiative, to prevent and manage problems proactively and not wait until patients are severely ill before they go to the doctor. This way, patients can be kept healthier and happier and out of the emergency rooms and hospitals.

Dr. Bailey reported that he had a patient who refused to get a screening colonoscopy, but when he came in for his scheduled annual wellness exam, his clinic educated him on the importance of screening for bowel cancer and set him up with a home Cologuard test. The test came back positive, which necessitated looking at closely with a colonoscopy. The patient now saw the reason to get the colonoscopy. The colonoscopy did diagnose early-stage colon cancer which was able to be treated relatively easily.

Dr. Bailey stated that “if he had waited and never done the test, minimum the treatment would have been much more difficult and maybe not even successful.”

PQA applauds the efforts of Dr. Bailey and the team at Specialized Family Medicine. They are exemplary in helping their patients live longer, healthier and happier lives.