Patient Centered Medical Home

A New Concept: The Patient-Centered Medical Home

"Patient-centered" means that the patient is the most important person in the health care system. "Medical home" is an approach to providing total health care, where patients join a team that includes health care professionals, pharmacists, and trusted friends or family members. There has been a great deal of discussion around the idea of patient engagement—of consumers becoming more active partners in their own health and health care as opposed to simply being recipients of care.

Engagement starts with patients' goals. Healing and health maintenance are goal-oriented processes; but not all patients with a given condition have the same goals. Discussion, clarification and understanding of goals with your patients create the foundation for a long-term successful relationship. At the same time, establishing mutual expectations, and a process for reviewing progress against them forms the basis for shared accountability.

A Medical Home is not an institution or a nursing home, but a community of medical practitioners that offers coordinated, comprehensive primary care that is focused on making sure your patients' health care needs are met. Patient care is delivered by a team of professionals – doctors, nurses, health educators, pharmacists and physical therapists -- that puts the patient and caregiver at the center of the team.

A Medical Home Team:

• Coordinates patient care across settings, including specialists and hospital care. This helps to prevent duplicate tests and procedures, and errors that can occur when multiple providers are involved.
• Focuses on preventive care and disease management, to help patients stay healthy and manage their conditions in partnership with their practitioners.
• Knows patients and provides care that accommodates patients' treatment preferences, life situations and cultural and language needs.
• Actively supports patients in making decisions about your care
• Supports patients or their caregivers in taking an active role in managing patients' health care.

A Medical Home provider community can improve patients' health by improving their access to primary care.