primary care medical home
The Primary Care Medical Home (PCMH) approach - sometimes called Patient-Centered Medical Home - is a model of health care that is patient-centered, focusing on care coordination, access to care and effective partnerships between the patient, a primary care provider and team of health care professionals. Components of the PCMH model include the following:
Practice organization
- Strategies for involvement from all staff members (i.e. team meetings, huddle, role revisions retreat)
- Maximizing peak of capability design
- Job description
- Workflow (process mapping)
Health Information Technology
- Electronic medical records (EMR)
- E-prescribing
- Email
- Patient registries
- Clinical guidelines/protocols
- Interactive patient portal
Patient Experience and Quality
- A personal physician who coordinates all care for patients and leads the team
- Physician-directed medical practice – a coordinated team of professional who work together to care for patients
- Whole-person orientation – this approach is key to providing comprehensive care
- Coordinated care that incorporates all components of complex health care system
- Quality and Safety – medical practices voluntarily engage in quality improvement activities to ensure patient safety is always being met
- Enhanced access to care – such as through open access scheduling and communication mechanisms
- Payment – system of reimbursement reflective of the true value of coordinated care and innovation