CLINICAL QUALITY
Quality of care as defined by the Institute of Medicine is “the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge”.
- All patients receive care that meets their needs in an efficient, effective, timely and safe manner.
- It is ongoing and constantly evolving to embrace the newest proven outcomes and the latest technology breakthroughs.
Community Health Centers consistently deliver this type of quality of care and the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers seeks to provide technical assistance to encourage health center participation in quality improvement activities, information on successful practices and training on successful methods for implementing those clinical quality activities.
Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH)
PA IPIP Collaborative for Community Health Centers
Join the PA Improving Performance in Practice (IPIP) Collaborative for Community Health Centers
and become a Patient-Centered Medical Home!
The PA Academy of Family Physician Foundation and PACHC are working together to provide PA health centers with a fully supported learning collaborative using the Chronic Care Model/Model for Improvement as the framework for the Patient-Centered Medical Home. At the end of the first year teams will be ready to apply for NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home Recognition under their new 2011 standards. This newly formed group for health centers is a part of IPIP’s Primary Care Residency Program Collaborative. Interested health centers should contact Cheryl Bumgardner, Clinical Coordinator by email at Cheryl@pachc.com by May 23rd.Collaborative Invitation Document
Residency Program Collaborative Work Plan 2011-2012
- A team-based model of providing comprehensive, patient-centered care
- Facilitates partnerships between individual patients, their personal provider and family members as appropriate
- Leads to better access to care
- Increases patient satisfaction in that care
- Improves quality of care
- 2014 Goal: ALL Pennsylvania Health Centers will be PCMHs
Community Health Centers are the health experts in their communities
- The care is tailored to meet the communities cultural, linguistic and health needs.
- They are at the forefront meeting the challenge of becoming patient centered medical homes through participation in the State Chronic Care Initiative and the Qualis Safety Net Patient Centered Medical Home Initiative.
- Nearly half of them are in the process of implementation or currently utilize electronic medical records that allow them to better coordinate and enhance patient care, an essential component of the PCMH
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs)
An ACO is a provider-led organization whose members engage in joint decision-making, and that manages the full continuum of care and is held accountable for the overall costs and quality of care for a defined population.
- Has the capability of prospectively planning budgets and resource needs
- Will be of sufficient size to support comprehensive, valid, and reliable performance measurement
- Centers around controlling costs while at the same time increasing quality
To be eligible to form an ACO groups of providers must voluntarily meet certain criteria which includes quality measurement. The physical makeup of an ACO can range from large, integrated delivery systems to group physician practices and health center networks. As with the patient centered medical home, ACOs are still in the development and implementation phases but Pennsylvania’s health centers are poised to be important factors in ACO development.
