Since 2008, PCDC’s content experts have provided strategic leadership, practice coaching, and technical assistance to community health centers, hospital outpatient centers, private practices, and special needs providers across the country.
These services recently yielded an important milestone: 450 primary care practice sites will have achieved National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Patient-Centered Medical Home recognition by the new year.
The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model places patients at the forefront of care while fostering improved relationships between patients and clinical providers. The model emphasizes team-based, coordinated, and accessible care, with a focus on quality and safety. PCMH aims to improve quality, reduce cost, and improve the experience of patients, caregivers, and health professionals. A growing body of evidence shows the PCMH model reduces health care costs and unnecessary use of services, such as emergency department visits.
“This milestone is quite the achievement,” says Avital Havusha [left], Managing Director of Performance Improvement at PCDC. “I am proud of our team’s diligent work and our partner providers’ dedication to quality. An increase in PCMH-recognized primary care practices means more patients receiving care in the right place, at the right time, and in the manner that best meets their needs.”
PCMH has been central to health care payment reform in Medicaid, Medicare, and commercial health plans. Many states such as New York have also linked PCMH to financial incentives for providers. For example, New York’s Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment program (DSRIP) has prioritized PCMH recognition among participating primary care practices. As a result, DSRIP has connected hundreds of safety net practices to technical assistance resources to transform the way they provide care and achieve PCMH recognition.
Over the past year and a half, PCDC has partnered with DSRIP networks throughout New York State to help more than 200 practices achieve recognition. PCDC uses a tailored approach, meeting practices where they are, to create individualized plans for improvement, translate complicated standards into attainable tasks, and guide practices through the PCMH recognition process from start to finish.
With PCDC’s support, primary care staff devote countless hours to examining, improving, and transforming how they deliver care. Practices make meaningful changes with the goal of improving quality and outcomes by implementing PCMH strategies, including patient access to a personal physician and care team; care coordination and information sharing between primary care, behavioral health, and specialty care; and the use of performance data to identify opportunities for practice improvement.
In 2018, PCDC’s team will continue to provide expert coaching and technical assistance to primary care practices seeking PCMH recognition, including those seeking recognition under NCQA’s 2017 Recognition Redesign Program and School-Based Medical Home Recognition Program.