Academy Launches Comprehensive Patient-Centered Medical Home Resources

In early June, the Academy launched a new area on its Web site. The patient-centered medical home, or PCMH, section of the Web site, was created by the Academy to make family physicians’ transition to the medical home as smooth as possible.

The PCMH section offers a varied assortment of tools to help physicians reach their PCMH goals, and it provides a pictorial representation of the medical home (Figure 1⇓), which is constructed of 4 building blocks atop a foundational base.

The foundation of the medical home is represented by a single block that symbolizes the specialty’s core values. That’s significant because family medicine is the only medical discipline dedicated to treating the whole person across the full age spectrum with a continuous and comprehensive approach to care.

Each block of the color-coded house represents a critical piece of the PCMH. Physicians are invited to roam the virtual house and explore all of the resources within each area. The 4 main components of the structure are

• practice organization for physician practices striving for disciplined financial management, strong staff relationships and a reliance on clinical systems that deliver high quality care

• health information technology for physicians using technology to run a practice that is efficient in its business, clinical and communication processes

• quality measures for physicians who need to discover ways to enhance the quality of health care delivered to patients; and

• patient experience for physicians interested in creating a practice that patients embrace and choose to call their medical home

Bruce Bagley, MD, AAFP’s medical director of quality improvement, said the Web pages were designed to be physician-friendly and easy to navigate. Physicians can even download a PCMH checklist to map their progress.

“The site provides a direct link to TransforMED (a wholly owned subsidiary of the AAFP that helps physicians redesign their practices) so that users can enjoy 1-stop shopping for all the PCMH tools they need,” he said.

Bagley noted that the creators of the site intend for users to drop in often. “They expect physicians and their office teams—all of whom have unfettered free access to the site 24 hours a day—to dig deep and work at a pace that suits each individual practice,” he added.

Academy leaders recognize and applaud the work that AAFP members have already undertaken, said Bagley. “Family physicians are on the right path as they renovate and remodel their practices.”

The Academy also realizes that health care reform must include an overhaul of the current payment system. “AAFP leaders want to ensure that family physicians are poised to take advantage of any payment reform that centers on the patient-centered medical home,” said Bagley.

He encouraged FPs to jump online and enter the site with a fresh look and a renewed focus. “Members should get engaged in the medical home building process and keep moving forward with their good work,” he said.

The PCMH section of the Academy’s Web site is supported by a grant from Merck & Co, Inc.

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Figure 1.

Patient-centered medical home.

• © 2009 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.