Lessons Learned from Implementing the Patient-Centered Medical Home
Table 1
Joint Principles of Medical Home*.
Personal physician
(i) Patients have an ongoing relationship with a personal physician (ii) First contact, continuous, and comprehensive care
Physician directed medical practice
(i) Personal physician leads a team of individuals at the practice level (ii) Collective responsibility for the ongoing care of patients
Whole-person orientation
(i) Medical home provides for all the patient’s healthcare needs or appropriately arranges care with other qualified professionals (ii) Care for all stages of life: acute care, chronic care, preventive services, and end-of-life care
Care is coordinated and/or integrated
(i) Coordination of care across the healthcare system and patient’s community (ii) Care is facilitated by registries, information technology, health information exchange, use of interpreters, and other means
Quality and safety
(i) Quality and safety improvement are hallmarks of the medical home (ii) Specific activities could include individualized care plans, evidence-based decision support tools, collection and reporting of quality improvement data, use of information technology, and voluntary certification of practices as medical homes
Enhanced access
(i) Patients can easily access healthcare via their medical home (ii) Specific improvements could include open access scheduling, expanded hours, and enhanced phone or e-mail communication
Payment
(i) Increased payments support the added level of service and value provided to patients who receive care from a medical home
