Skip to main content

The Medical Home...Are we on to something?

There have been 2 recent articles (one in a Boston publication and one in an upstate New York publication) about the concept of the medical home. This term is thrown around an awful lot these days and means much more than just a solo or group of primary care providers. This is a patient-centered approach to care that uses a coordinated effort by a team of health care professionals focusing on preventative health services right through hospitalizations. You can see the wikipedia definition of medical home here. Professional organizations such as the AAFP, AAP, & ACP (among others) have even adopted formal policy statements on this.

One of the main reasons that this concept hasn't gone anywhere is because the coordination of this type of care (the phone call consults, e-mails, paperwork, etc) hasn't traditional been reimbursed by insurance companies. These new pilot projects are attempting to remedy that. Also encouraging is that NPs are being utilized in this model and are leading the team of professionals.

I am encouraged by this model and anticipate that it will not only improve patient outcomes but will also drive down costs of health care. This is the part that is largely unknown: will it curb the needless spending and duplication of tests/screenings ordered for what is largely considered defensive medicine and will outcomes improve by keeping folks out of the hospital?

Communication and team work are the cornerstones to the success of the model. I am hopeful that healthcare professionals will understand this, work together and keep it patient-focused. Stay tuned....
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Private Practice

There is an interesting trend that I'm observing and don't necessarily see how this is going to turn out. I'm seeing more and more nurse practitioner's opening their own autonomous practices. Many of these offices set out to offer care that is personalized, covered under insurance, and of course high-quality. I'm also seeing more NP specialty/sub-specialty practices such as house calls, incontinence, and women's health. This is in a time when more physician practices are joining together in these conglomerations that aren't necessarily tied to hospitals. You'd be hard pressed to find a solo primary care physician these days yet nurse practitioner solo practices are popping up. The talk about the formation of accountable care organizations can be attributed to health care reform and the spurring of large multi-physician practices. What to make of this? I honestly don't know. Many people and patients have said to me "you should start your own prac
21 comments
Read more

Guest Post: The Pros and Cons of Legal Nurse Consulting

The Pros and Cons of Legal Nurse Consulting I’ve spent years pursuing different avenues in the health care industry. I spent my high school years studying to become a CAN, I was at one point a EMT, and I eventually turned to alternative practices like massage therapy, herbs and general fitness and nutrition. Not long ago, though, I heard a term that was relatively new to me – legal nurse consulting. My aunt told me about her pursuit of a legal nurse consulting certification. Her goal was to pass the certification exam and open her own business, partnering with lawyers around the country to help them understand medical charts and the medical profession as a whole. Sounds great, right? I’m wondering if it really is. I urge anyone who is considering legal nurse consulting to consider the pros and cons. While it is certainly an admiral and profitable career path, it may limit your future choices. First of all, legal nurse consulting is not a get-rich-quick solution to your problems. If you
4 comments
Read more

NP Residency

The healthcare system of today is so complex yet so dysfunctional that I believe the time has come to educate and train the NP providers of tomorrow in a way that is reflective of that complexity. We have done a good job up to this point but need to bring that to the next level. Residency. I'm not necessarily referring to the typical residency training of physicians which takes place in hospitals but a residency-type of program in an out-patient setting (ironic that we use the term residency). We realize that healthcare is not exclusively delivered in hospitals. It takes place in independent providers offices, in community health centers, in mobile health vans, and in retail settings. It takes place in people's homes and places of employment. It takes place in many of the health decisions that we make on a daily basis. I found this NP residency program in Connecticut that claims to be the first NP residency in the US. The programs admits 4 NPs each year and trains them to ha
20 comments
Read more