Engaging Your Team for the Patient-Centered Medical Home

by Anna Vordermark, Marketing Manager

Thursday night, I had the pleasure of joining 150 healthcare professionals to hear a panel of physician and nursing executives discuss the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) concept. These leaders are actively involved in clinical excellence, quality improvement, and state-run initiatives to implement team-based care in physician practices and health systems across the country and share an interesting perspective on the role of engagement in the PCMH.

Patient-Centered Medical Home History

PCMH is a fairly recent concept that evolved to help providers combat the silos that now characterize modern healthcare. As healthcare has moved away from a disease-treatment model to a patient-centered model, providers’ and patients’ roles and responsibilities have begun to shift. As the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) points out, the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) is part of this evolution, providing scores to inform consumers about their choices within healthcare and allowing providers, health plans, and employers to discover consumers’ preferences.

The Patient-Centered Medical Home is an approach to broaden consumers’ access to primary care while enhancing care coordination between providers. According to the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, clinicians in the PCMH model are accessible to patients, connected to other providers through technology and evidence-based approaches, committed to regular check-ups, considerate of whole-person wellness, and accountable for patient health. In addition to demonstrating these behaviors because it’s the right thing to do, medical practices can also apply for National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recognition, which may qualify the PCMH for financial incentives from payers.

PCMH and Engagement

When I asked the panelists about the cultural challenges in creating a PCMH, their answers focused on the transition toward team-based care, which is not the model most doctors or employees were trained in. The panelists’ remarks included:

“The key to a PCMH is having a provider champion, staff engagement, and Senior Leader/Director buy-in.” 

“You must have a physician champion who embraces the team approach. Otherwise, start looking somewhere else.”

“Community and patient education is vital because patients also have accountability for wellness and access to care.”

“Re-design your processes to support team interactions, then use reinforcement to standardize the new norms.”

“There are four steps to successful implementation of a PCMH:
1. Have a physician leader
2. Invest in the resources (technology and staff)
3. Reinforce the culture/vision of why this is important
4. Provide recognition/compliments for the groups who do it and do it well"

“Provide internal physician metrics and a governance model that includes consequences.”

“Culling the herd may be necessary. Physicians, office staff—not everyone will embrace the new culture, so leaders must apply discipline and consistency, just like they must with EMR. Staff must be educated about why this is required and managed out of the organization if they’re not on-board.” 

“In light of the primary care workforce shortage, PCMH can help make Primary Care meaningful and may attract more providers out of school."

 “Staff who are engaged will take better care of the patients.”

Has your organization earned recognition for any Patient-Centered Medical Homes? How have you overcome cultural barriers and engaged your employees and physicians to adopt this new model?

About the Author −As a member of Morehead’s Product Management group, Anna manages the marketing activities for Morehead’s Employee and Physician Engagement products. She has over 10 years of experience in healthcare marketing, patient education, and clinical operations. She is the vice president of Program Development for the Charlotte Chapter of the American Marketing Association and active with the American College of Healthcare Executives. Before joining Morehead, she managed North American marketing operations for a network of medical device manufacturers. Anna holds an MBA from UNC Charlotte and is a Certified Social Marketing Associate.