PCPCC President Paul Grundy, MD, MPH to receive NCQA Health Quality Award

WASHINGTON, DC – Paul Grundy, MD, MPH, president of the Primary Care Collaborative and IBM's global director of healthcare transformation, will be honored March 27 as a recipient of the NCQA Health Quality Award.The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is honoring Grundy as an early and enthusiastic champion of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH). His passion and advocacy have advanced the PCMH, which has been shown to improve care quality and lower the cost of care.

“The truth is, the work of advancing the patient-centered medical home is a team effort. I stand on the shoulders of so many others,” he said. “Primary care physicians and their colleagues are the real heroes in our quest to end medical homelessness. I am honored to have carried the baton a short distance in a race that started years before.”

For Grundy, the son of missionaries to Africa, health system transformation is his secular mission; he considers the journey toward comprehensive, integrated, coordinated and accessible care as his calling. And he has the facts on his side: The evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that the medical home can bend the cost curve, enhance patient satisfaction and improve health outcomes. The PCMH continues to gain traction. To date, NCQA has recognized 3,979 medical homes; of those, 2,544 have achieved the highest level of recognition, Level 3. In addition, the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Office of Personnel Management, have embraced the medical home.

As president of the PCPCC, a coalition of stakeholders committed to the advancement of the patient-centered medical home, Grundy has championed this expansion -- and the notion that the patient-centered medical home model of primary care can be a strong foundation for a high-performing health care system. In the process, he has earned the respect and affection of the PCPCC’s leadership and members.

“I want to congratulate Paul, not just on behalf of the PCPCC, but also personally. I cannot overstate how much he has inspired all of us,” said David K. Nace, MD, vice president and medical director of McKesson Corporation and chairman of the PCPCC’s board of directors. “It is largely thanks to him that the PCPCC has seen such tremendous progress over the past five years in advancing primary care-based systems of care that are accountable to the patient. I am proud to be Paul’s colleague and friend, and I can think of no more deserving person for this award.”

About the Award: NCQA presents Health Quality Awards to individuals and organizations that highlight the need for—and drive—health care improvement. This year’s other honorees are surgeon, writer and public health researcher Atul Gawande, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Helen Darling, president and CEO of the National Business Group on Health; and Patricia Gabow, MD, CEO of Denver Health and Hospital Authority. Past recipients include former Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell; former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; the Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton; former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher; Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts; actress and advocate Mary Tyler Moore; and The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.About NCQANCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations, and recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information for consumers, purchasers, health care providers and researchers.