SHAPE Army Health Clinic earns national recognition as an Army Medical Home

By U.S. ArmyApril 1, 2014

MONS, Belgium -- After nearly a year of hard work, the SHAPE Army Health Clinic has been recognized by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) as an Army Patient Centered Medical Home.

PCMH is a team approach to healthcare. In a PCMH, Patients are partnered with a team of healthcare professionals which includes their Primary Care Provider, Registered Nurse, Licensed Practice Nurse and Medic. Together over time, the Patient and their health care team, work to treat illness and injuries, promote healthy living and manage ongoing healthcare issues.

"Receiving this recognition is a major milestone for the SHAPE Healthcare Facility and our staff," said SHAPE AHC Commander Col. Donovan Green. "This serves as proof of the hard work and dedication our staff has put in to achieve this result. The PCMH is a model of healthcare based on an ongoing, personal relationship between a patient, doctor and the patient's care team. Whatever the medical needs -- primary or secondary, preventive care, acute care, chronic care, or end-of-life care -- the patient has a medical 'home'; a single, trusted doctor and care team, through which continuous, comprehensive and integrated care is provided."

The NCQA is a non-profit organization that measures the ability of medical facilities to provide quality healthcare through standardized, objective measurement guidelines. NCQA requires recognized facilities to enhance access to care and patients' continuity with their provider teams, keep track of patient data to help manage patients' wellbeing, plan and manage care using evidence-based practices, provide self-care support and community resources, as well as track and coordinate tests, referrals and other care for patients. Finally, clinics have to show that they measure their performance and patients' feedback to continue improving the quality of care.

"Ever since the directive was published in 2011 to have the NCQA/PCMH certification applicable to all Army Health Clinics, there has been a large amount of effort to achieve this goal and receive the NCQA certification as a PCMH site," Green said. "The SHAPE Healthcare Facility put many hours of effort into this program modifying processes and staff assignments to provide a Patient Centered approach to healthcare and in order to document that the program was being run and maintained successfully."

Here?'s what patients can expect from the SHAPE Army Health Clinic Medical Home:

• A personal provider. Each patient has an ongoing relationship with a personal Physician, Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioner who is trained to provide first contact, continuous and comprehensive care.

• Physician directed medical practice. The personal physician leads a team(s) of individuals at the practice level who collectively take responsibility for ongoing patient care.

• Whole person orientation. The personal provider is responsible for providing all of the patient's health care needs or for arranging care with other qualified professionals.

• Coordinated and Integrated Care. Each patient's care is coordinated and integrated across all elements of the health care system and the patient's community.

• Quality and Safety focus: All members of the healthcare team are focused on ensuring high quality care in the medical home.

• Improved access: In the PCMH, enhanced access to care options are available through open scheduling, same day appointments, secure messaging, and other innovative options for communication between patients, their personal physician and practice staff.

"The main goal and efforts within the PCMH model is to bring the patients closer to the healthcare team," Green explained. "The care provided is totally focused on the patient and a high quality healthcare but with the patient?'s involvement in both the care but the processes used to provide that care. This approach provides a more personalized healthcare delivery to each patient with an initiative in preventive and episodic care provided and a staff member that becomes familiar with the patients assigned to the PCMH team to provide this personalized care. It also provides a team that is dedicated to provide the highest level of care and prevention to the beneficiaries of a health care organization."

SHAPE Army Health Clinic is the 13th PCMH under the Europe Regional Medical Command. Army Medicine's goal is to have all of its primary care facilities in the continental United States and overseas achieve NCQA recognition and transform to the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model of care no later than October 1. The transition to the PCMH model of care is part of Army Medicine's overall shift from a health care system to a system for health.