A report called “Transforming the Primary Care Training Clinic: New York State Hospital Medical Home Demonstration Pilot” looks at many indicators of the effect of the past few years of the 1115 Medicaid waiver that provided millions of dollars of support to multiple academic medical centers with primary-care practice sites to create or upgrade patient-centered medical homes.
Fred N. Pelzman, M.D., writes in MedPage Today that as the “money {from the experiment} trickled down, it did allow us to advance our NCQA certification, build some more IT infrastructure, hire care coordinators, and support some faculty while they mentored residents with a new PCMH curriculum and the development of multiple quality improvement projects.
“The results highlighted by the article are intriguing, and show that across the state continuity increased, access to care increased and outcomes in terms of compliance with several recommended healthcare maintenance items increased, all of which are good things.”
“I’m not saying that this $250 million was not well spent.
“But it’s a drop in the bucket. It’s just the beginning. We have so much more to do, so far to go, so much more that needs changing, to really bring us back to a place where we can take care of our patients and we can once again find joy in the practice of primary care outpatient medicine that we love so much.”
“Even with all of the benefits of the added resources from the Hospital Medical Home project, it remains hard for residents practicing in the outpatient setting to see the forest for the trees, the joys and the benefits of outpatient medicine, of longitudinal care of patients, of being someone’s doctor.
“Let’s see where this great start takes us next.”
