AHRQ paper, brief address improving PCMH evidence and evalutions

AHRQ has produced a brief and white paper that offer suggestions on how to improve the quality of current patient-centered medical home evidence and evaluations. The brief, "Improving Evaluations of the Medical Home," offers decision makers a concise description of why and how to commission effective evaluations of medical home demonstrations. The white paper, "Building the Evidence Base for the Medical Home: What Sample and Sample Size Do Studies Need?" addresses, among other issues, how to account for clustering of patients within practices. ("Improving Evaluations of the Medical Home" and "Building the Evidence Base for the Medical Home: What Sample and Sample Size Do Studies Need?")

IOM proposes 10 ways to promote health IT safety

The Institute of Medicine says there is little published evidence quantifying the risk associated with health IT and has called for a greater focus on the issue. IOM's report, "Patient Safety and Health IT: Building Safer Systems for Better Care," outlines 10 proposals for making systems safer for patients, reports Becker's Hospital Review. Among the recommendations: Health and Human Services should come up with a patient safety plan, build a process for reporting health IT-related adverse events, and create an independent agency to probe patient safety issues. (Becker's Hospital Review; IOM report) 

Providers & Suppliers

PCMH paying off for providers, says AAFP president

Physicians more likely than patients to consider EHRs as safer than paper  

Physicians are more likely than patients to view EHR systems as safer than paper records, according to a survey from EHR vendor Practice Fusion. The survey, conducted by GfK Roper, found 54 percent of physicians believe EHRs are safer, compared to 39 percent of patients, FierceEMR reports. Among those who believe EHRs to be safer, access to records was the greatest benefit of electronic records. More than 1,000 patients and 1,200 medical professionals were surveyed. (FierceEMR)

Attend ONC annual meeting virtually

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is holding its 2011 annual meeting on Thursday in Washington, D.C. The meeting will be webcast live. In the afternoon, in-person attendees will break out into smaller sessions. Track 1: IT Bricks and Mortar to Optimize PCMH (2:45 to 4:15 p.m. EST) will be webcast live with social media participation via twitter (#ITPCMH). In-person attendance for this meeting is closed, but you can join virtually. (Register to watch the webcast; agenda)  

Report looks at PCMH adoption in New York

United Hospital Fund has released "The Patient-Centered Medical Home: Taking a Model to Scale in New York State." The report describes the PCMH model and how it has being adopted, implemented and multiplied in communities across the state over the last four years. It also addresses policy and logistical challenges for providers and payers. New York state health officials' goal is to involve every primary care doctor in the state in PCMHs, not just the nearly 20 percent currently certified, Crain's New York reports. (Crain's New York; "The Patient-Centered Medical Home: Taking a Model to Scale in New York State.")

The Expanding PCMH: News and Updates

Metropolitan Health networks (MetCare), a provider of health care services in Florida, announced that three more of its centers have achieved NCQA recognition, bringing the total number of NCQA-recognized MetCare centers to 11. (The Street)

Maryland has launched its Health Care 2020 plan, an initiative to increase the primary care workforce. Building that work force is key in promoting a state patient-centered medical home initiative. The idea is that family doctors closely coordinate individual patients' care to prevent unnecessary hospital visits and other expensive procedures. (Baltimore Business Journal)