The Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH)

The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is an innovative approach to the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective, and patient-oriented primary care, with an emphasis on the effective management of chronic conditions. Under this model, the primary care provider (PCP) coordinates continuous, comprehensive, team-based care for his patients using evidence-based medicine, while encouraging self-management of care through enhanced information technologies. In the last decade, PCMHs have been introduced as significant interventions to improving the delivery and quality of primary care in the United States at lower costs.1

In 2007, four organizations representing approximately 330,000 primary care physicians in the United States (the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the American Academy of Physicians (AAP), the American Osteopathic Association (AOA), and the American College of Physicians (ACP) established the “Joint Principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home.”4 The …show more content…
According to a journal article published by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, “83% of individuals [among the Medicare population] have at least one chronic condition, and almost a quarter have at least five co-morbidities.”5 The continued expansion of the PCMH model can help address the rising health care costs deriving from unmanaged chronic diseases by coordinating patient-centered plans with a team of health care providers including the PCP, nurses, care managers, physical therapists, dieticians, etc. This team-based approach reduces the workload of the PCP while enhancing the care of the patient. Since the implementation of PCMHs, emergency department visits and hospitalizations for older patients with chronic diseases have