The Impact of Primary Care: A Focused Review

Posted by on Mar 2, 2013 in Articles | 0 comments

The Impact of Primary Care: A Focused Review

The Impact of Primary Care: A Focused Review Scientifica Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 432892, 22 pages In this focused review paper, Leiyu Shi of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. aims to identify research evidence on the value of primary care both in the USA and internationally, focusing on the importance of effective primary care services in delivering quality healthcare, improving health outcomes, and reducing disparities. Leiyu Shi was a colleague of Barbara Starfield, collaborating with her on the Commonwealth Fund report Contribution of Primary Care to Health Systems...

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Medicare’s Transitional Care Payment — A Step toward the Medical Home

Posted by on Mar 2, 2013 in Articles | 0 comments

Medicare’s Transitional Care Payment — A Step toward the Medical Home

Medicare’s Transitional Care Payment — A Step toward the Medical Home — NEJM“” The US medicare funders have acted to shift more funding to primary care. They have announced the creation of a fee for service item number for primary care clinicians to conduct a post discharge consultation and perform coordination activities after hospital or nursing home admission. They discuss the activities that evidence shows reduce hospital readmission…. “The most effective of these — particularly if initiated early and in combination — are structured hospital discharge...

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Guidelines for people, not dieases

Posted by on Mar 2, 2013 in Articles | 0 comments

Guidelines for people, not dieases

Hughes LD, McMurdo ME, Guthrie B. Guidelines for people not for diseases: the challenges of applying UK clinical guidelines to people with multimorbidity. Age Ageing 2013;42(1):62-69. The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) develops management guidelines for the UK NHS based on international best evidence. This study looked at five recent guidelines for commen conditions and the implications of using these in practice for real patients – at least two thirds of patients with each of these conditions will have significant comorbidities. The guidelines chosen were...

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Benefits of the Medical Home – Report

Posted by on Sep 24, 2012 in Articles | 0 comments

Benefits of the Medical Home – Report

The Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative has just released a report on the ‘Benefits of Implementing the Patient Centred Medical Home‘. This report documents the outcomes of a number of projects based around the medical home model of care. There are three broad conclusions. As medical home implementation increases, better health, better care and lower costs are being achieved. Momentum for the medical home model in the US is rapidly increasing with public and private sector investment. The concept of the PCMH is evolving to include the medical neighborhood. A mounting body...

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Australian Primary Health Care Reform and the Medical Home

Posted by on Sep 24, 2012 in Articles | 0 comments

Australian Primary Health Care Reform and the Medical Home

This month, The Australian Governments (state and federal) released a report that details components of a National Primary Health Care Strategy. Element 4 of this strategy details how a medical home can contribute to a system that is ‘Well-integrated, coordinated, and providing continuity of care, particularly for those with multiple, ongoing, and complex conditions’ An extract The concepts of ‘medical home’ and ‘patient enrolment’ In terms of integrated and coordinated care, the concept of a ‘medical home’ or regular provider is increasingly recognised...

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Primary Care for the 21st Century: Ensuring a Quality, Physician-led Team for Every Patient

Posted by on Sep 23, 2012 in Articles | 0 comments

Primary Care for the 21st Century: Ensuring a Quality, Physician-led Team for Every Patient

The AAFP this week launched its report “Primary Care for the 21st Century: Ensuring a Quality, Physician-led Team for Every Patient ” The United States is adopting a new model of primary care built around patients and delivered by teams. As a key element of this approach, primary care medical practices are being called upon to do more, and to do it better, while managing resources ever more wisely. This approach is generally known as the patient-centered medical home (PCMH).1 It has proven to increase quality of care for the patient and cost-effectiveness for the health care...

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