It requires an investment in time, money and a lot of work behind the scenes, but industry officials said they’re optimistic that a more coordinated approach to primary care can both cut costs in the long run and lead to healthier outcomes for patients.
Summit Health has adopted the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model to provide patients with a comprehensive, coordinated and accessible approach to primary care.
Rather than a place, the PCMH is an approach to providing primary care that is patient-centered, team-based, and focused on quality and safety. It establishes the patient’s primary care physician as the fundamental coordinator of the patient’s care.
In New Jersey, Horizon’s patient-centered medical home program puts data-savvy nurses in primary care practices to reach out to high-risk patients and forestall costly crises
Trying to save money in health care isn’t new to Sandra Siegel, RN. A nurse with 30 years’ experience, she remembers working for a managed care company in the ’90s doing precertifications and checking hospital stays.
The patient-centered medical home is ideal for babies discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), say those in charge of neonatal care at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City.
"It fits this population very well, and we believe we are the only ones with this model in the country," Debbie Pennington, BSN, RN, clinical program coordinator for the home, said in an interview with Medscape Medical News.
BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina has partnered with a variety of of public and private groups to promote the idea of patient-centered medical homes in the hopes of improving health and saving money.
