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The Article in Brief
Alignment of Canadian Primary Care With the Patient Medical Home Model: A QUALICO-PC Study
Alan Katz , and colleagues
Background Canada's patient medical home (PMH) model includes ten goals that enable the best possible health outcomes for patients and communities, while emphasizing Canadian health care values. This study aims to determine to what extent the structure and processes that define primary care in Canada align with PMH model goals.
What This Study Found Evaluating the degree to which primary care across Canada comports with the goals of the Patient Medical Home model, researchers find considerable room for improvement. Ten measurable indicators of the PMH model were applied across all 10 Canadian provinces. The results indicated an average national PMH composite score of 5.36 out of 10. Ontario was the only province to score significantly higher than Canada as a whole, while Quebec, Newfoundland/Labrador, and New Brunswick/Prince Edward Island scored below the national average. There was little variation among provinces in achieving the 10 PMH goals. Although the PMH is a pan-Canadian model, implementation is dependent on provincial and regional or local policies, and during the past 15 years, new primary care funding models have been introduced without consistency in timing, key model components or implementation strategies across provinces.
Implications
- The authors call for future research into the effects of reform on practice characteristics and processes, and assessment of health services utilization and quality measures for clinical conditions. The information gained from these activities, they posit, may motivate further uptake of the PMH model's attributes in all provinces
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