WASHINGTON – The Affordable Care Act is placing a huge emphasis on the forward progress of delivery models that save lives, improve care and cut costs. One such model is the patient-centered medical home.

 

At the National Health IT and Delivery System Transformation Summit,, held June 27 in Washington, D.C., experts revealed lessons they’ve learned from patient-centered medical homes.

 

James Dearing, DO, a family practice physician and participant in the United Health Group’s patient-centered medical home demonstration in Phoenix, Ariz., said the benefits include improved coordination with all players involved in a patient’s care, improved medication adherence, better disease management through the use of registries and improved communication with patients.

 

“Patient-centered medical homes work,” he said. “They will absolutely transform care. They are needed in any accountable care organization, and they are what allow us to accumulate the data. Patient-centered medical homes incentivize people to do the right thing in the right place.”

 

John Blair, III, MD, president of the Taconic IPA and lead of the Hudson Valley Pay for Performance Medical Home Project in Fishkill, N.Y., who has 10 years of medical home experience, said the model will not work without health IT.

 

“All of the team needs to have access to the patient’s records at all times,” he said. The primary care physician needs to manage the patient’s flow through the system or, at a minimum, know about every stop along the way. In addition, all care managers need to be trained on EHRs, he said.

 

Karen DeSalvo, MD, the health commissioner for New Orleans, chairwoman of the Medical Home Committee and lead for the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum Medical Home Initiative in New Orleans, knows all too well the importance of healthcare IT. She said she and other providers learned first-hand through Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that paper records can kill.

 

One surprise came with the massive overhaul of EHRs following the hurricanes: Not all clinicians can type. This created a “big challenge,” she said.

 

This problem will probably fix itself with time, DeSalvo noted. “When you’re hiring new care providers, the younger ones expect EHRs and anticipate they will be interoperable. To be competitive, we have to be wired to attract good clinicians.”