5/3/2008 11:01:00 PM New medical concept treats the whole person
The Advanced Medical Home model could be the wave of the future. Major medical organizations are testing the concept in several pilot programs across the country, and it seems to be working.
It's a way to care for people based on what's best - and often easiest - for them and it rewards doctors for spending time with a patient, managing the whole person and not just their current symptoms.
The American College of Physicians proposed the concept in a major 2006 policy paper. It would change the way we organize, deliver, finance and value primary care, the college says. A doctor's medical practice would have to become certified and be accountable for results based on quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.
In a nutshell, the concept means that patients will have a primary care doctor who leads a team of health professionals caring for the patient and whose office tracks all of the patient's medical conditions using the latest in electronic records sharing. The doctor alerts patients when it's time for vaccinations, office visits and other medical procedures.
The college says the advanced medical home model is especially beneficial to patients with multiple chronic conditions.
To support this type of care, fundamental changes in the health care system need to occur, including:
• Paying physicians more for the time they spend with patients evaluating and managing their care.
• Providing financial incentives for the investment doctors make in health information technology designed to help patients manage chronic diseases and track their progress.
• Paying doctors for e-mail and telephone consultations that reduce the need for office visits and increase patients' access to timely medical advice.
• Paying doctors for the time they spend outside of face-to-face visits coordinating a patient's care with other healthcare professionals and with family caregivers.
• Enhancing patient access to care through expanded hours - often offering same-day visits - and options such as group visits where a patient can see several care providers under one roof or in convenient locations.
One of the model's most important features is managing a patient's care through a secure electronic system that can connect with local hospitals, pharmacies and other medical caregivers and give a doctor electronic "prompts" that keep track of individual patients' needs.
Three other major medical professional groups support the advanced medical home model. They are the American Academy of Pediatrics, which first used the term "medical home" in 1967 in reference to the care of children with special needs; the American Academy of Family Physicians; and the American Osteopathic Association.
"Consumers are going to need to hear about this through trusted sources, so they see it as a system of care that will benefit them - not a gatekeeper system or yet another attempt to limit care or reduce cost," said Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, in the February newsletter of The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that supports independent research on health care issues.
Ness called the medical home model promising.
To read the American College of Physicians' report on Advance Medical Home models and its detailed examples of how three different medical offices might implement such a model, visit www.hhs.gov/healthit/ahic/materials/meeting03/cc/ACP_Initiative.pdf.
Posted: Monday, May 05, 2008
Article comment by:
Pete
Spare the models and find some people who are willing to be a real doctors with the basic knowledge of human anatomy and how it relates to enviroment and all the chemicals Americans take every day.
