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What is a Patient-Centered Medical Home?
The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is an approach to providing comprehensive primary care for people of all ages and with all medical conditions. The PCMH facilitates partnerships between an individual patient, and his or her personal physicians, and when appropriate, the patient's family. Under the PCMH model, a physician-led medical practice, chosen by the patient, integrates health care services for patients who confront a complex and confusing health care system.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) introduced the medical home concept in 1967, initially referring to a central location for archiving the medical records of a child. In its 2002 policy statement, the AAP expanded the medical home concept to include these operational characteristics: accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family-centered, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally sensitive.
In February 2007, the AAP, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) and the American College of Physicians (ACP) used this 40-year old concept to develop a set of joint principles that describe a new level of primary care which they call the Patient-Centered Medical Home. These principles address the medical home partnership through which access --to specialty care, educational services, out-of-home care, family support, and other public and private community services important to the overall health of the patient - is facilitated. AGS officially signed on to these principles in October 2007.
The PCMH offers the benefits of a personal physician, with a whole-person orientation, who accepts overall responsibility for the care of the patient and leads a team that provides enhanced access to care, improved coordinated and integrated care, and greater emphasis on safety and quality.
The incentives of the PCMH model are aligned to facilitate improved communication and coordination of care between the personal physician and other treating physicians. The PCMH practitioner is not a "gatekeeper" who is rewarded for limiting access to specialists. Instead, patients have discretion in selecting specialists and subspecialists.
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Why is PCMH important for Geriatrics Care Providers?
The proposed PCMH model complements the AGS’ work on the Realigning Care Act (RCA, formerly the Geriatric Assessment and Chronic Care Coordination Act). It provides for the same kind of team care that geriatrics healthcare professionals currently provide their patients.
The Society’s objective is to ensure that care coordination and comprehensive geriatric assessment are explicit components of the PCMH.
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