In April 2011, the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) awarded Mercy Primary Care Center (MPCC) recognition from the Physician Practice Connections-Patient-Centered Medical Home (PPC-PCMH) program for using evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long-term participative relationships. MPCC is honored to be chosen for this recognition because it objectively demonstrates the work we have been doing for years to meet patients where they are and empower them to improve their health.

The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is a model of health care 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. Medical home clinicians demonstrate the benchmarks of patient-centered care, including open scheduling, expanded hours and appropriate use of proven health information systems. 

“We are even more excited because of what operating as a patient-centered medical home means for our patients,” said Margaret Meyers, M.D., Medical Director.  “It is a way of thinking about our population of patients and the way we do things that ultimately improves the care to individuals.”

The patient-centered medical home promises to improve health and health care. 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 MPCC has the tools, systems and resources to provide its patients with the right care at the right time.

To receive recognition, which is valid for three years, we demonstrated the ability to meet the programs key elements embodying the characteristics of the medical home through the practice of providing patient focused care. Some of the ways we are accomplishing these goals:

• Every patient has a personal provider who they see consistently so they can develop a relationship and make plans together on how to improve their health. They also have access to a provider 24 hours a day for urgent concerns.
• We use tools for managing our chronic disease patients, such as reviewing charts prior to a visit, tracking test results to help ensure things aren’t missed and using disease registries to evaluate our care and improve upon it.
• We have consistent and timely provider and quality management meetings where data and evidence-based guidelines are used to develop policies and protocols within the center, especially helpful for managing chronic illnesses.
• Our Electronic Medical Records systems are used for ease in information retrieval so that all medical providers (nurse, doctor) are all informed about each step in a patient’s care plan. We also use a flow-sheet system to prompt services, such as foot and eye-exams, at the proper intervals for each patient.
• We have established a patient-provider agreement to educate patients about the goals for their treatment and then engaging them in the active pursuit of these goals helps to make sure that we are working together as partners.

MPCC looks to build on this model to continuously improve how we partner with patients to deliver care in a way that allows them to live healthier, happier and longer lives.