The Patient Centred Medical Homes (PCMH) model plays a pivotal role in achieving improved health for populations, enhanced patient experiences, health care cost reductions and better support for health professionals.
On Saturday 17 September, we hosted ‘The Time is Now!’ PCMH Masterclass to explore further aspects of patient care transformation and encourage networking between practice teams. The day was a great success as we shared learnings and insights from PCMH practices on their transformation journey.
Ray Messom, CEO of WentWest, commented, “We have been implementing the PCMH program since 2014 and currently have 24 PCMH practices operating in Western Sydney. Our PCMH practices are the practices of the future and create an opportunity to drive collaborative, evidence-based, integrated care for our diverse community.”
As part of the PCMH model, practice leaders are empowered to consistently champion and engage care teams in improving patient experience of care and clinical outcomes. Led by our presenters, practice teams reflected on the transformation journey to date, focusing on the four foundational building blocks of Bodenheimer’s 10 Building Blocks of High Performing Primary Care:
- Engaged Leadership
High-performing practices have leadership at all levels of the organisation. Medical assistants, receptionists, clinicians, and other staff take on the mantle of changing how they and their colleagues do their work. Some engage patients in leadership roles calling upon them as experts in the health care experience to identify priorities for improvement. Leaders create concrete, measurable goals and objectives.
- Data-Driven Improvement
Monitoring progress towards objectives requires data systems that track clinical (e.g. cancer screening and diabetes management), operational (continuity of care and access) and patient experience metrics.
Performance measures are often drilled down to each clinician and care team and are regularly shared with the entire staff to stimulate and evaluate improvement.
- Patient Registration
Patient registration enables the practice to determine whether each clinician and team has a reasonable balance between patient demand for care and the capacity to provide that care. It allows practices to adjust the workload among clinicians and teams and to improve continuity of care.
- Team-Based Care
High-performing practices view teams as a necessity, providing recommended acute, chronic, and preventive care. Many exemplar practices have created teams with well-trained non-clinicians who add primary care capacity. Building teams that add capacity is called “sharing the care”.
We would like to thank all who attended the day and our panel of speakers:
- Dr Kirsten Meisinger – international expert on PCMH with a history of co-chairing the National Health Equity Collaborative and the National Faculty for the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services initiative
- Dr Walid Jammal – Board Member of WentWest (Western Sydney Primary Health Network) and Board Member of the Western Sydney Local Health District
- Dr Paresh Dawda – GP consultant adviser at the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation and NSW eHealth
- Ian Corless – senior executive, leadership coach and facilitator who has over 25 years of experience working in the UK, New Zealand, USA and Australia across varied sectors including health care, pharmaceuticals, finance, logistics and education
For more information about PCMH, contact your Practice Development Team member, call our Virtual Support team on 8811 7117 or visit our website.
29 September 2022