Arches Medical Rhode Island Reports Progress in Primary Care Turnaround, Expands Access Amid Statewide Capacity Shortage

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As Rhode Island’s primary care system continues to face sustained strain, the state’s largest independent primary care practice made significant progress in 2025 strengthening operations and expanding access to community-based care.

Over the past year, Arches Medical Rhode Island (www.archesmed.com) served more than 57,000 patients across 116,000 primary and urgent care visits, including 6,500 new primary care patients. Today, all Arches sites are actively accepting new patients and scheduling appointments without a wait list, reflecting a meaningful expansion of access at a time when many Rhode Islanders have struggled to find or re-establish primary care.

“Primary care in Rhode Island has been under extraordinary strain,” said David Gellis, MD, CEO of Arches Medical Rhode Island. “Our focus was keeping doors open, supporting clinicians, and ensuring patients had a stable medical home.”

Workforce investment has been central to that effort. In 2025, Arches hired 10 new primary care providers (PCPs), including three clinicians formerly with Anchor Medical, helping preserve continuity for patients affected by that closure. Four of the hires represent net-new PCPs to Rhode Island, expanding the state’s overall clinical capacity.

Arches also continued to emphasize preventive and longitudinal care and is projecting strong 2025 performance across key quality measures, including achieving HEDIS 5-Star outcomes on blood pressure and glycemic control. These results reflect consistent, provider/patient relationship-based care over time.

Operationally, the organization invested in infrastructure to improve access and clinician sustainability. Efforts included a centralized call center to improve scheduling and phone responsiveness, enhanced chart-preparation workflows, and the careful rollout of AI-enabled tools to support clinical documentation and inbox management.

Results to date from Arches’ participation in the Medicare Shared Savings Program show strong cost performance relative to benchmarks, supporting the organization’s view that proactive, community-based primary care can improve outcomes while improving affordability.

This progress followed a challenging starting point. Arches Medical Rhode Island was formed in 2024 after Village Medical announced plans to exit from the Rhode Island market, placing multiple practices at risk of closure and creating uncertainty for tens of thousands of patients. Arches assumed operations of those practices and worked quickly to prevent closures, retain clinicians and staff, and maintain continuity of care.

Following the closure of Anchor Medical in 2025, Arches also assumed custodianship of that independent practice’s medical records and onboarded the largest share of displaced Anchor patients, helping ensure continuity during a period of significant disruption.

“In early 2024, there was a real risk that primary care access would shrink even further,” Gellis said. “We focused on stabilizing care first, then rebuilding from there.” Through expanded access, improved patient engagement, renegotiated payer contracts, and participation in advanced primary care programs, Arches made meaningful progress in 2025 toward long-term sustainability.

“Significant challenges remain,” Gellis said, “including ongoing workforce shortages, rising operating costs, and a payment environment that has yet to fully catch up to the value primary care delivers. But the trajectory has meaningfully improved.”

“Anyone who has tried to find care for themselves or a family member in Rhode Island knows that primary care has been under real threat,” Gellis said. “What we’re demonstrating is that with clinician-led leadership and the right operational support, it can recover and continue serving Rhode Islanders.”

Rhode Islanders seeking primary care can schedule appointments at any Arches location by visiting www.archesmed.com, calling 401-900-5679 or walking into one of the three urgent care locations.

About Arches Medical Rhode Island (www.archesmed.com)

Arches Medical Rhode Island is a physician-led primary care organization focused on preserving and expanding access to community-based care across the state.