Editor David Merritt’s Paper Kills 2.0 explains in its third chapter about Patient Centered Medical Homes (PCMH) which has nothing to do with convalescent facilities, and all to do with individual control of one’s healthcare. The topic is being addressed tomorrow, January 14, at the Delaware Valley HIMSS event at the Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA.
In the book, Sarah T. Corley, MD FACP and Charles W. Jarvis FACHE propose PCMH as an “environment based on evidence, driven by data, founded on wellness, and centered on patients’ needs.” They go on to say that PCMH is a team-based virtual network of doctors, nurses, and involved clinicians who share patient information to better coordinate patient care. Central to the team is the patient and all decisions about care begin with the patient and doctor and radiate outward. However, Corley and Jarvis caution, because of glacial adoption of healthcare IT/EHR – widespread use of PCMH is distant; but progress should not be abandoned. Better healthcare will be realized when it can be put into the individual patient’s hands and guided by professionals. Examples of PCMH’s potential can be found at WellStar Health System in Atlanta, CHC Collaborative Ventures in Arizona, and Crystal Run Healthcare in New York. PCMH is championed by the NCQA.
Corley and Jarvis recommend that the healthcare market take the following actions to abet swifter PCMH adoption: understand that healthcare transformation is essential and inexorable, validate data gleaned from federal and private payers who should commit to openly promoting PCMH, educate patients as to PCMH’s value and doctors as to its business and clinical benefits, and adopt healthcare IT and its inherent advantages for all involved. Consider the above a primer to PCMH.
If you’re heading to the DV HIMSS event tomorrow (here’s agenda and directions), you are now prepared. If you’re not, you’ve learned something good here. If you want to read more about HIT issues you can access VCS’s vital news library of white papers and newsletters.
