The medical home concept is recognized as an effective method of patient-centered health care. At present, there are standards of patient-centered medical home (PCMH), based on the criteria that it must meet to be credentialed. These standards have been formulated by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), and, at present, remain the benchmark for PCMH performance. In this paper, the criteria for assessing PCMH and the value of the medical home to patient outcomes will be examined, with their relation to my DPI Project intervention of patient outcome.
The PCMH Recognition program developed by NCQA is based on a set of six concept areas:
- The concept of team-based care and practice organization “defines the criteria for the collaboration … structures tasks and staff responsibilities” (National Committee for Quality Assurance, 2019, p. 33).
- The concept of knowing and managing patients provides “standards for data collection, medication reconciliation, and evidence-based support” (National Committee for Quality Assurance, n.d.).
- The concept of patient-centered access and continuity determines that patients are provided with access to clinical advice and continuous care.
- The concept of care management and support is related to identifying underserved patients.
- The concept of care coordination and care transition ensures that specialists are “sharing information and … minimizing cost” (National Committee for Quality Assurance, n.d.).
- The concept of performance measurement and quality improvement helps measure the outcomes and set the goals.
PCMH provides effective health management with decreased cost of the services. The contemporary model of the medical home includes “access to care, continuity of care, comprehensiveness, and integration of care, and patient participation” (Gwynne & Daaleman, 2018, p. 346). PCMH method is also proven to be cost-effective, providing “alternatives to the traditional fee for service model, including … pay for performance, and bundled payments” (Miller et al., 2017, p. 55). Thus, the value of the medical home to efficient health management and patient outcome is evident.
In conclusion, I will add that the concept of PCMH and the existing standards for its recognition can help me to determine the criteria for measuring the results of my DPI Project intervention on patient outcomes. My project is concerned with primary care measures to avoid falls from older patients. The intervention’s effectiveness could be assessed as high in case if it meets the criteria:
- continuity of the positive outcome;
- the absence of underserved patients;
- a multidimensional approach to the problem;
- minimized cost of services.
References
Gwynne, M. D., & Daaleman, T. P. (2018). Patient-centered medical home. In T. P. Daaleman & M.R. Helton (Eds.), Chronic illness care: Principles and practice (pp. 345-356). Springer.
Miller, B. F., Ross, K. M., Davis, M. M., Melek, S. P., Kathol, R., & Gordon, P. (2017). Payment reform in the patient-centered medical home: Enabling and sustaining integrated behavioral health care. American Psychologist, 72(1), 55–68.
National Committee for Quality Assurance. (n.d.) NCQA PCMH recognition: Concepts. 2020. Web.
National Committee for Quality Assurance. (2019). PCMH standards and guidelines. Web.