Dear Doctor: Sara Gallo, PA-C
The Colorado-based physician assistant on addressing health equity and literacy with her patients.
Physician assistant Sara Gallo is passionate about providing quality medical care to patients of all backgrounds and abilities. Having recently transitioned from working full-time in-clinic to spending more time working in health innovation for underserved and marginalized communities, Sara is committed to finding solutions to improve the patient experience at every touchpoint.
With over 10 years of experience in pediatrics, adult medicine, and advanced primary care, Sara’s approach to whole-person wellness is rooted in preventive care. Read on to learn about what inspired her to pursue medicine, the challenges she’s overcome in building trusting relationships with patients, and how she’s working to address health inequity and literacy.
How did you get started in medicine and what inspired you to become a physician assistant?
I’ve wanted to be in medicine since high school. I’ve long valued cultivating close and trusting relationships and finding a way to have a positive impact on others. I’m a huge science nerd, and although I didn’t grow up in a family of healthcare workers, the allure of empowering people to solve their issues and understand their bodies better ultimately drew me to medicine.
As a physician assistant (PA), I’m able to focus on the collaborative aspect of caring for a patient. I was also drawn to how the role would allow for some flexibility in practice. I don’t have to choose a field in which to specialize — I can change my specialties as needed to support the evolving demands of the healthcare ecosystem. As a PA, I feel that I can work where I’m most needed.
Plus, not following the traditional physician route enabled me to start seeing and impacting patients earlier on in my career. Ultimately, it was the best choice for me to optimize the time I have on this earth to take care of people and do something that impacts as many people as possible.
You’re passionate about preventive care. In what ways do you see this approach have a meaningful impact on patients’ lives?
By focusing on preventive care, there’s a significant opportunity to build relationships with patients around their whole-person health. With this approach, I’m able to encourage patients to be the drivers of their own healthcare journey while also helping them to improve their individual health literacy.
Unfortunately, nobody gets taught how to take care of themselves and navigate the healthcare system. So I do my part to help bridge that knowledge gap with my patients.
Building trusting relationships is an important piece of this puzzle — if there’s mutual trust, my patient will be more likely to take my personalized advice into practice and improve their health in the long run.
What’s more, I encourage them to ask questions — something that’s not generally incentivized in the healthcare system. Once they feel like their questions are acknowledged and respected, I find that patients value the time they spend with me, whether it be for a preventive visit or not.
There’s a humanizing element to preventive care that I believe is essential to its success, but can often go overlooked. Doing what I can to meet my patients where they are goes a long way toward changing the dynamic between us and enabling them to get more out of the healthcare system in the end.
What have been some of the biggest triumphs and obstacles you’ve experienced when it comes to building trust with patients?
The biggest obstacle that I’ve faced regardless of the population I’m working with is acknowledging and repairing prior healthcare trauma experienced by patients.
Unfortunately, these experiences are prevalent and negatively impact a patient’s relationship with providers and the healthcare system in general. Whether I’m working in primary care or in urgent care for a marginalized community as I am now, I believe it’s essential that these traumas are acknowledged in order to override the sense of distrust that they may be feeling at that moment. Validating these experiences can also improve their desire to seek care and prioritize healthcare in the future.
I’ve also found it beneficial to acknowledge barriers they may be facing when it comes to accessing care, like prioritizing food, transportation, and safe housing. I offer patients my help in whatever I can do to help lower these barriers to help make their health a higher priority. I hope this helps emphasize that I am rooting for their success.
Patients in the Medicaid population are often treated like second-class citizens, which is both inappropriate and unfortunate. At Care On Location, we create a better experience for these patients so that they don’t have to jump through unnecessary barriers, like electronic medical record portals and long questionnaires. Many of our patients are homeless and don’t have reliable transportation or access to childcare, which is why offering same-day appointments is also so important.
Partnering with Capsule has also helped us to prioritize their health by removing barriers when it comes to accessing prescriptions. I’m proud to be a part of an organization that does what it can to offer patients every opportunity to be successful in taking care of themselves.
In what ways have you witnessed Covid-19 change the approach to health literacy?
Interestingly, Covid-19 has leveled some of the playing fields when it comes to accessing information and building more accessible platforms from which to navigate the healthcare system.
Members of the Medicaid population have often been turned away from accessing care and as a result they don’t ever approach the system again. But Covid-19 has emphasized the need for easy and flexible healthcare access options for patients. I think many practices have had to learn how to build a more reliable digital presence than ever before, including telehealth platforms and online blog resources.
It’s encouraging to see organizations realize that we need to dismantle the barriers to care delivery and build better avenues to help patients invest in their health.
What has been the most rewarding moment of your career to date?
Leaving primary care and investing more of my time in health innovation specifically for underserved and marginalized communities. Since making this change, I’ve felt reinvigorated to help solve some of healthcare’s most prevalent and persistent problems.
Exiting the space of day-to-day clinical care delivery has enabled me to spend more time innovating solutions that can have a positive impact on a population level. I get to use the experiences I’ve had with patients to develop something that can help improve the experience of care delivery for these patients while also helping to prevent provider burnout.
Vital Signs
How do you de-stress? Spending time with my dog and taking vacations where I’m able to slow down and decompress.
What’s your favorite thing about living in Colorado? The outdoors and open spaces.
Do you have a favorite book, TV show, or podcast of late? Relentless Health Value is a great podcast about the nuances and intricacies that make healthcare innovation and patient-centric care so difficult.
What’s one healthful habit you’d love to see patients adopt? Not viewing their lack of exercise or “healthy eating” as a failure. There’s so much pressure these days placed on exercising and eating right, but when patients take the obligation and guilt out of the picture and instead view these strategies as a flexible and customizable way for them to improve their health and wellbeing, I find it’s much easier for them to incorporate these habits into their lives in sustainable and meaningful ways.
You can learn more about Sara Gallo, PA-C here.
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