“In a patient-centered medical home, there is a strong emphasis on coordination of care and communication between all members of a patient’s healthcare team,” says Jeffrey Cain, MD, president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). “Patients receive the highest-quality, patient-centered care when the primary-care physician takes the lead in coordinating care. This means keeping patients, specialists, hospitalists, and other health providers informed of all test results, treatment plans, expectations, progress, and outcomes.”
Find out about the PCMH activity in their own communities.
Dr. Cain said that the degree of PCMH adoption depends on where you work.
“It is spotty throughout the United States,” he notes. “There are areas of tremendous growth and areas that are waiting to have that happen.”
Dr. Simone, a Team Hospitalist member, says the degree to which hospitalists are familiar with PCMH depends on the level of adoption in the area.
“I have found greater hospitalist awareness in communities that have integrated healthcare delivery systems,” he says. “This makes sense, because these are the communities that are aggressively pursing the patient-centered home.”
Forge relationships with primary-care providers.
Dr. Simone encourages hospitalist groups to make marketing visits to local PCP offices. During these visits, hospitalists should discuss the services they provide, their staffing model, admission and communication protocols—and, “most importantly, ask what the hospitalist practice can do to meet the needs of both the patient and the referring providers.”
Dr. Li says it’s always been important to have open lines of communication with your PCPs—but now more than ever.
“If you don’t have this already, you’re already behind in the ballgame,” he says. “But it’s never too late. It’s critically important to have those communication systems in place so that patients get the best care possible.”
Talk to hospital administrators about clinical and financial links with PCMH practices.
The time to do this, Dr. Simone says, is when a local PCMH is being created, or at contract renewal time, if a PCMH is already exists.
“Hospitalists will obviously need to have a voice within the organization and some autonomy for them to commit to such an integrated relationship,” Dr. Simone says.
Prepare for the demands of sicker patients.
If better primary care means fewer hospitalizations, the patients who are admitted will be sicker, posing more challenges to hospitalists.
“Make sure each individual provider has the skill set and schedule that allows them to take care of these patients,” Dr. Li says.
Embrace the possibilities this model offers.
In the PCMH model, the coordination between the hospitalist and the PCP can only help a hospitalist at the time of discharge.
“It will be easier to get their patients into a primary-care office,” says Dr. Cain of AAFP.
David Meyers, MD, director of the Center for Primary Care, Prevention and Clinical Partnerships at the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which provides tools and information that support primary care’s redesign and the PCMH, says the model essentially adds a member to the hospitalist’s team.
“If done well, it gives the hospitalist a partner in the community with whom to establish joint accountability,” Dr. Meyers explains. “In addition to establishing accountability, the PCMH helps ensure information flows both into and out of the hospital.”
A Growth Spurt
As of March 1, the nonprofit National Committee on Quality Assurance had recognized 3,979 practices across the country as “patient-centered medical homes.” And that doesn’t include practices that function according to PCMH principles but are not officially recognized.
