Health Care Quality Special Reports

Shift to a Medical Home Model Requires Two Years of Sustained Effort, Report Says July 2010 Organizational Options Transforming a medical group from a physician-centric practice to a team-based, patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is challenging for physicians, especially for those accustomed to being responsible for the entire patient encounter, according to a new analysis of the PCMH model of care. The transformation requires a great deal of effort, motivation, and support, according to a report from the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), in Leawood, Kan. The report also suggests that practices are unlikely to pay for the cost of transforming into a PCMH themselves. For the PCMH model to become widely adopted, the delivery system must be reformed to support this approach to care, meaning adequate funding will be required from a combination of federal, state, local, health insurance, and health system sources, the AAFP said. Cross-Training Needed “Developing care teams requires substantial cross-training efforts, as well as developing a shared vision among front- and back-office staff of how care teams affect the patient experience,” the AAFP said. “Most practices will need additional financial and human resources to achieve full medical home transformation.” Many physician groups will need more than two years of intense work to facilitate the change to a PCMH, said the AAFP and its subsidiary, TransforMED. In the report released last month, a team of independent evaluators analyzed TransforMED’s two-year physician practice redesign, called the National Demonstration Project (NDP). The report, “Evolution of the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Patient-Centered Medical Home National Demonstration Project,” was published in a supplement to the May/June 2010 Annals of Family Medicine. The NDP evaluation was funded by the AAFP and The Commonwealth Fund. The practice redesign effort ran from June 2006 to May 2008 and AAFP said it was the first and .... You must sign-in to read complete article. If you are not registered click here. Username: Forgot it? Password: Financial support for this Website is provided by Premier Healthcare Resource.

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