A two-year patient-centered medical home pilot program was associated with lower rates of ambulatory care-sensitive emergency department visits, though hospital admissions and total emergency department visits remained unchanged, according to an article published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Researchers tracked hospital admissions, emergency department visits and several quality-of-care process measures for patients in five primary care practices and three private insurers in the Rhode Island Chronic Care Sustainability Initiative.
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While adherence to the medical home intervention as measured through National Committee for Quality Assurance audit data reached 90 percent during the course of the study, emergency department visits and inpatient admissions among the patient population were not significantly different after the implementation of PCMH practices.
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