What's going on at Hahn and Nelson Family Medicine? Well, plenty, actually. We have just been chosen to participate in Maryland's pilot Patient Centered Medical Home project. What does this mean?
Basically, it means that all patient care is coordinated through your primary care provider while making sure certain quality measures are being met. So when you come and see Dr. Nelson or Dr. Hahn for a problem that needs a specialist's care, we will follow that care closely. The specialist becomes part of the team that takes care of you.
Hahn and Nelson Family Medicine was one of only 50 family practice offices in Maryland chosen to participate in this pilot program. In order to be considered for this pilot, a practice had to meet a number of requirements. Partly because we're already a state-of-the art practice, we were able to qualify. One of the requirements was that we use Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software to maintain patient records. The EMR had to meet criteria such as providing decision support, tracking of labs and other tests, and implement e-prescribing. The Oxbow EMR (described as "Coolest Product of 2010" by Health Management Technology!) that we use more than satisfies these and other requirements. Other requirements, such as always having same-day appointments available for acute illnesses, offering round-the-clock phone response from a provider and re-visit planning and after-visit follow-up for care management are already part of our mission to provide compassionate, highest quality medical care in an efficient and professional manner. So although in many ways we already meet the requirements of this program, we will now be implementing them using measures to prove that this team-based, patient-centered care could be a model for the future.
If you'd like to read more about the Maryland PCMH pilot project, including the exact criteria for becoming part of the project, just follow this link.
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