Patient Centered Medical Home
For the past four years, DotHouse Health has been working to become a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH). In January 2013, we reached an important milestone by receiving National Center for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Patient-Centered Medical Home Level 3 Recognition, the highest level that NCQA grants. While we are proud of this accomplishment, our journey has just begun.
What is a medical home? In a traditional care setting, patients receive care when they come into the health center. They may have specific problems they want to talk about that day, and their provider will order tests if they notice they are overdue. In a medical home, teams of caregivers care for all patients, whether or not they come in the door. Medical home practices reach out proactively to patients when they are overdue for services and coordinate care with specialists, community agencies, and other care providers. Medical home caregivers:
- Engage patients to expand their role in decision-making and self-management
- Work in teams to coordinate and track care over time
- Use data for continuous quality improvement
- Provide evidence-based care based on current clinical standards and guidelines published by nationally recognized organizations
Why become a medical home? The medical home model focuses on engaging patients as partners in their care, encouraging behavior changes to improve health. Medical homes are also well-positioned to take advantage of trends in healthcare, which focus on care coordination and emphasize quality of care over volume. As a result, the PCMH model is widely recognized as the way forward in a changing healthcare environment.
What is next for PCMH at DotHouse Health? NCQA recognition is only the start of a new way of thinking about patients and of delivering care. We are now focusing on revising care team roles for more efficient and patient-centered flow and developing strategies to more closely integrate Behavioral Health and Primary Care services.