"What can the Medical Home Learning Collaborative Do for You and Your Practice?"
As we quickly move past the first decade of the twenty-first century, health care reform and the need to transform primary care practice has never been more urgent. The health care reform bill contains Medical Home as the model of primary care needed to improve patient care and stop spiraling costs.
The Institute of Medicine and others have stated that system change is needed to make this transformation. System change within a practice is best done through quality improvement processes. Experiences by members of the AAP have demonstrated that "learning collaboratives" help start and maintain this process.
The Medical Home Learning Collaborative (MHLC) is a joint project between IUSM and an IN Community Integrated Systems of Services Grant (CISS) grant from the IN State Department of Health. The MHLC has been working to improve Medical Home concepts in primary care practices since the Fall of 2009. The current practices in the Collaborative are:
* Blackburn Health Center - Dr. John Kunzer, Dr. Seth Rinderknecht
* Meridian Pediatrics - Dr. Mary McAteer, Dr. James Cumming
* Pecar Health Center - Dr. Dawn Haut
* Ridge Medical Center - Dr Frederick Ridge
* St. Vincent Faculty Practice - Dr. Elizabeth Roth
* St. Vincent Family Medicine Residency Clinic - Dr. Heidi Harris
* St. Vincent Pediatric Primary Care Clinic - Dr. Niceta Bradburn, Dr. Shelia Stewart, Dr. Shivika Jain
* Shipshewana Family Medicine - Dr. Tony Pechin
* Wishard Primary Care Pediatrics - Dr. Sarah Stelzner
Conference calls, site visits, group meetings and other correspondence allow the MHLC to share ideas for quality improvement with other practices in the collaborative. Successes at the practices include:
* Improved patient access through brochures, same day scheduling, modified telephone systems and email communication
* Better team communication through huddles and QI meetings
* Parent and family involvement on quality improvement issues
* Creation of registry for complex patients
* Use of a care coordinator
Join your colleagues. We are adding new practices to the MHLC, sponsored by the federal Maternal Child Health Bureau and Indiana State Department of Health. We will be recruiting six more practices throughout the state. If you would like more information, please contact us and Save-the-Date of October 16, 2010 for our Learning Collaborative Fall Meeting where we will focus on Medical Home and quality improvement methods.
For more information, contact Nancy Swigonski, MD, nswigons@iupui.edu or Sarah Stelzner, MD, sstelzne@iupui.edu.
Online Launch June 1, 2009 www.pediatricmedhome.org
Brought to you by the AAP/MCHB/National Center for Medical Home Implementation, the Building Your Medical Home Toolkit supports the primary care pediatrician's development and improvement of a pediatric Medical Home. It also prepares a pediatric office to apply for and potentially meet the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Physician Practice Connections Patient Centered Medical Home (PPC-PCMH) Recognition program requirements. The Toolkit can help a practice assess and improve its medical home capacity with resources and downloadable tools organized into six building blocks that provide guidance for implementation:
- Care Partnership Support addresses family access and communication
- Clinical Care Organization addresses standards for practice organization and use of clinical information
- Care Delivery Management addresses the promotion of clinical care that is consistent with scientific evidence, as well as patient and family preference
- Resources and Linkages addresses successfully linking patient and families with community resources to help meet their needs
- Practice Performance Measurement addresses the organization and promotion of safe and high quality care
- Payment and Finance addresses the need to match quality care and NCQA recognition with payment and value
The National Center for Medical Home Implementation is a cooperative agreement between the Maternal and Child Health Bureau/HRSA and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The National Center works to ensure that all children and youth, including those with special health care needs, have the services and support necessary for full community inclusion through medical homes.
Building Your Medical Home Toolkit content was developed by Jeanne McAllister, Director of the Center for Medical Home Improvement, Crotched Mountain Foundation in New Hampshire, with guidance from AAP leadership and the National Center's Project Advisory Committee members. For more information about the National Center, please visit www.medicalhomeinfo.org or contact Angela Tobin, Manager of Technical Assistance, at atobin@aap.org.
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