The Affordable Care Act is placing a huge emphasis on the forward progress of delivery models that save lives, improve care and cut costs. One such model is the patient-centered medical home model.
At the recent National Health IT and Delivery System Transformation Summit in Washington, D.C., experts revealed lessons they've learned from patient-centered medical homes.
[See also: Medical home demonstration revisited.]
James Dearing, DO, is a family practice physician and a participant in United Health Group's patient-centered medical home demonstration in Phoenix, Ariz. He said the benefits of a patient-centered medical home model include:
- improved coordination with all players involved in a patient's care;
- improved medication adherence;
- better disease management through the use of registries;
- and improved communication with patients.
"Patient-centered medical homes work," Dearing said. "They will absolutely transform care. They are needed in any accountable care organization, and they are what allows us to accumulate the data."
He added that "patient-centered medical homes incentivize people to do the right thing in the right place."
John Blair, III, MD, president of Taconic IPA and lead of the Hudson Valley Pay for Performance Medical Home Project in Fishkill, N.Y., has ten years of medical home experience. The model will not work without health IT, he said.
"All of the team needs to have access to the patient's records at all times," Blair offered. The primary care physician needs to manage the patient's flow through the system, or at a minimum know about every stop along the way. In addition, all care managers need to be trained on EHRs, he said.
[See also: Medical Home model receives $1.7M shot in the arm.]
Karen DeSalvo, MD, health commissioner for the City of New Orleans, chair of Medical Home Committee and lead for Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum Medical Home Initiative in New Orleans knows all too well the importance of care health IT.
DeSalvo said she and other providers learned first-hand through Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that paper records can kill.
One unexpected surprise came with the massive overhaul to EHRs following the hurricanes. Not all clinicians can type. This created a "big challenge," she said.
This problem will probably fix itself with time, DeSalvo noted. "When you're hiring new care providers, the younger ones expect EHRs and anticipation they will be interoperable," she said. "To be competitive, we have to be wired to attract good clinicians."
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