Styles of parenting and practicing medicine have followed remarkably similar trajectories over the last half-century, with authoritarian tones firmly banished from both arenas, and the old phrases of admonition and advice overhauled to communicate cheerful encouragement, mutual understanding, and respect. It is only a matter of time before “Good job!” and its equivalents are heard as often in the nation's examination rooms as on its playgrounds.
The PCPCC's publication, "The Primary Care Consensus: A Comparison of Health System Transformation Proposals," presents a comprehensive review of five major public policy proposals and their implications for patient-centered primary care; including the Partnership for Sustainable Health Care, The Brookings Institution, Bipartisan Policy Center, Center for American Progress, and The Commonwealth Fund.
Imagine if the only place you could bring your child when she develops a fever or an ear infection, or needs a checkup or a refill for her asthma inhaler, was to a hospital emergency room. Or imagine you have multiple medical problems—diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, say—yet don’t have a regular doctor you can trust will make sure you’re getting all the right care you need to keep them under control.
In other words, imagine how difficult it would be to get all the care you and your family need to stay healthy without a primary care provider.
The federal government has launched demonstration projects to test whether patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) can tackle some of the biggest problems facing the nation’s health care system. Advocates are holding out hope that medical homes will help to slow the growth of health care spending while improving the quality of care. The medical home is a model that aims to transform the organization and delivery of primary care. The PCMH model focuses on personalized care, teamwork, and coordination of care to ensure that patient needs are met effectively and efficiently.
“There’s a big problem with trying to coordinate mental health care and the system is failing families. If mental health is addressed early, it can lessen the impact, so it’s important to be proactive.”
UCSF researchers conducted the first study ever to comprehensively examine medical homes for adolescents. They reviewed the rates of medical home attainment from the 2007 National Survey of Children’s’ Health (NSCH), a national survey of 91,642 parents, including roughly 45,000 who had children aged 10 to 17.
"We believe we can do better. Our group of diverse health care stakeholders came together over the past year to develop a road map to transform the health care system by improving efficiency, clinical effectiveness, and value for patients."
A diverse group of health care stakeholders present their recommendations for controlling costs and improving the quality of our health care system.
A new toolkit showcases how primary care practices are involving patients in quality improvement efforts as part of Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s signature effort to lift the quality of care in targeted communities across the United States.
The National Bone Health Alliance (NBHA), a public-private partnership bringing together the expertise and resources of 49 member organizations from the private and non-profit sectors (in addition to four federal government liaisons) to collectively advance bone health and prevent disease, recently announced the launch of Fracture Prevention Central (www.FracturePreventionCentral.org).
