Medical home

Lakeside Family Physicians and Lakeside Primary Care earn national recognition for patient-centered care

In January 2011 the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) announced that Lakeside Family Physicians and Lakeside Primary Care had been awarded the highest level of Patient-Centered Medical Home recognition.

The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is the new model of healthcare delivery that aims to improve the quality and efficiency of care. PPC-PCMH 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. Each patient’s care is tended to by clinician-led care teams, who provide for all the patient’s healthcare needs and coordinate treatments across the healthcare system. Medical home clinicians demonstrate the benchmarks of patients-centered care, including open scheduling, expanded hours and appropriate use of proven health information systems. Early evaluations of the PPC-PCMH have shown promising results in improving care quality and lowering costs by increasing access to more efficient, more coordinated care. By avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations and emergency room visits, these early results are producing savings for payers, purchasers and patients.

“The patient-centered medical home promises to improve health and healthcare,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “The active, ongoing relationship between a patient and a clinician in medical homes fosters an all-too-rare goal in care: staying healthy and preventing illness in the first place. PPC-PCMH Recognition shows that Lakeside Family Physicians and Lakeside Primary Care have tools, systems and resources to provide their patients with the right care at the right time.”

To receive recognition, which is valid for three years, Lakeside Family Physicians and Lakeside Primary Care 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 PCMH established with the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Osteopathic Association.

Lakeside Family Physicians and Lakeside Primary Care met key program components in the following areas:

• Written standards for patient access and enhanced communications
• Appropriate use of charting tools to track patients and organize clinical information
• Responsive care management techniques with an emphasis on preventive care
• Adaptation to patient’s cultural and linguistic needs
• Use of information technology for prescriptions and care management
• Use of evidence-based guidelines to treat chronic conditions
• Systematic tracking of referrals and test results
• Measurement and reporting of clinical and service performance.

Lakeside Family Physicians and Lakeside Primary Care are affiliated with Novant Medical Group, the physician network for Novant Health, a not-for-profit leader that serves 3.5 million residents in the Carolinas. For more information about Lakeside Family Physicians, visit www.nhlakesidefamilyphysicians.org. For more information about Lakeside Primary care, visit www.nhlakesideprimarycare.org.