Eleven leaders from the Pennsylvania Chronic Care Initiative, a medical home initiative, have provided their input on early evaluations of the patient-centered medical home in an article published in Health Affairs.
The physicians made the following findings:
1. It is too early to pass judgment on the concept. Although there have been evaluations of the PCMH concept, the physicians agreed it is still too early to pass judgment. Before an accurate evaluation of the PCMH can be provided, the concept needs to be further refined, and it needs to be shown that early successes can be replicated.
2. Early evaluations were flawed. The physicians noted JAMA published one of the most popular evaluations of the PCMH, which questioned the value of the PCMH. According to the physicians, the evaluation failed to accurately assess the PCMH concept. The evaluation examined the PCCI, which focused on improving diabetes care in adults and asthma in children. The physicians agreed the evaluation was flawed because it failed to use the clinical outcome measures tracked by the PCCI.
3. More development is needed. To accurately assess the PCMH, more time needs to pass to allow the model to fully mature. The physicians suggest it is still too early to deem the PCMH a success or an ineffective model.
Additionally, before the PCMH can be accurately evaluated, there needs to be more research done to determine the key elements for PCMHs to achieve all three triple aim goals.
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