A local health care provider has received national recognition for delivering excellent care to its patients. The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recently announced that Pines Health Services captured honors from the Patient-Centered Medical Home 2011 program for using evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long-term participative relationships.
Recognized were Pines Caribou Health Center, Pines Presque Isle Health Center, Pines St. John Valley Health Center, and Pines Women’s & Children’s Health Center.
According to the NCQA, the patient-centered medical home is a model of care emphasizing care coordination and communication to transform primary care into “what patients want it to be.” Research shows that medical homes can lead to higher quality and lower costs, and improve patients’ and providers’ reported experiences of care.
“The patient-centered medical home raises the bar in defining high-quality care by emphasizing access, health information technology and partnerships between clinicians and patients,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “PCMH recognition shows that Pines Health Services has the tools, systems and resources to provide their patients with the right care at the right time.”
The medical home idea identifies practices that promote partnerships between individual patients and their personal clinicians, instead of treating patient care as the sum of several episodic office visits, according to the committee. Each patient’s care is tended to by clinician-led care teams, who provide for all the patient’s health care needs and coordinate treatments across the health care system. Medical home clinicians demonstrate the benchmarks of patient-centered care, including open scheduling, expanded hours and appropriate use of proven health information systems.
To receive recognition, which is valid for three years, Pines Health Services demonstrated the ability to meet the program’s key elements embodying characteristics of the medical home. The standards are aligned with the joint principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home established with the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Osteopathic Association.
Pines Health Services met key program components in the following areas, noted commission officials: Written standards for patient access and continuity of care; use of patient feedback materials; appropriate use of charting tools to track patients and organize clinical information; responsive care management techniques with an emphasis on preventive care for individual patients and for the entire patient population; adaptation to patients’ cultural and linguistic needs; use of information technology for prescriptions, test and referral tracking and coordination with other health care providers; use of evidence-based guidelines to treat chronic conditions; and measurement and reporting of clinical and service performance.
