February 27, 2025- As an organization, Pioneer Physicians Network believes that the center of healthcare should revolve around the patient and their primary care physician trying to quarterback that care. Dr. Victoria DiGennaro, CEO and family physician at Pioneer Physicians Network, said that emphasis has allowed the clinical team to provide excellent patient outcomes.
“It has also allowed us to maintain a better quality of life and lower burnout for our physicians, which is a huge issue in medicine right now, and it has allowed us to remain independent,” she said. “We like to say we’re fiercely independent, which has been nice in the current landscape, especially with some of the major health systems that surround us.”
Currently, the organization has about 60 primary care physicians (PCPs) with an additional 30 nurse practitioners (NPs) serving 22,000 patients within three counties in Ohio. Pioneer’s clinicians do everything for the patient. They are responsible for their total cost of care in terms of pharmacy, hospital spend, ER spend, surgeries, etc.
Pioneer has “countless” patient stories and successes of how they’re providing better care for patients in this model, Dr. DiGennaro said. For instance, recently one patient came in for a routine bloodwork follow up. The patient was distraught and emotional during her visit. She kept talking about her computer. In traditional fee-for-service, the PCP would have 10 to 15 minutes to go through the visit and move on, but because Pioneer is doing comprehensive care, the PCP took a step back and talked to her. The clinician figured out she was having some kind of issue logging into her computer at home, and that was distressing her.
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