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A Model for Implementing the Patient-Centered Medical Home Published

July 12, 2012

Authors detail an approach to help primary care practices improve quality, experience and efficiency

Seattle, WA - In the June 2012 issue of Primary Care, investigators from the Safety Net Medical Home Initiative (SNMHI) define specific operational changes that primary care practices need to implement in order to become a patient-centered medical home. Qualis Health CEO and SNMHI principal investigator Jonathan Sugarman, MD, MPH, and Kathryn Phillips, MPH, director of the SNMHI, joined Ed Wagner, MD, MPH, and others from the MacColl Center for Health Care Innovation at the Group Health Research Institute and The Commonwealth Fund to summarize the evidence supporting eight change concepts for medical home transformation. The change concepts were developed as part of a five-year national demonstration project to assist safety net practices in primary care redesign efforts.

Building a strong primary care sector is a major goal of American healthcare policy. The patient-centered medical home model addresses these expectations, but there has not been an operational description available to help practices understand the process of transformation. To meet this need, the authors define the characteristics of fully transformed medical homes and the changes to practice infrastructure, organization and care delivery needed to get there.

The change concepts serve as a framework for technical assistance delivered through the Commonwealth Fund-sponsored SNMHI, led by Qualis Health. The SNMHI is helping 65 community health centers and other safety net practices in five states (Colorado, Idaho, Massachusetts, Oregon and Pennsylvania) accelerate their medical home implementation efforts. The change concepts and key changes described are also providing the guiding framework for other national and statewide medical home transformation efforts.

See the article abstract and the change concepts.