ACP: Medical Homes & Patient-Centered Care - What is the Patient Centered Medical Home?

Advocacy

What is the Patient-Centered Medical Home?

A Patient-Centered Medical Home is a team-based model of care led by a personal physician who provides continuous and coordinated care throughout a patient's lifetime to maximize health outcomes. The PCMH practice is responsible for providing for all of a patient’s health care needs or appropriately arranging care with other qualified professionals. This includes the provision of preventive services, treatment of acute and chronic illness, and assistance with end-of-life issues. It is a model of practice in which a team of health professionals, coordinated by a personal physician, works collaboratively to provide high levels of care, access and communication, care coordination and integration, and care quality and safety.

A more detailed description of the PCMH can be found in: The Advanced Medical Home: A Patient-Centered, Physician-Guided Model of Health Care (an ACP policy paper).

Joint Principles of the PCMH: In March 2007, the primary care professional societies endorsed a set of joint principles. These principles have now been endorsed by a total of 17 physician organizations.

NCQA Physician Practice Connection—Patient-Centered Medical Home (PPC-PCMH) (www.ncqa.org): The major primary care physicians groups, along with the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), have developed a recognition process called the PPC-PCMH. This process ensures that a qualifying practice is able to deliver services consistent with the PCMH model of care.

Evidence of the Effectiveness of the Patient-Centered Medical Home on Quality and Cost (www.pcpcc.net): A summary document prepared by the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative.