NUHEALTH EARNS NATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR PATIENT-CENTERED CARE
Victor F. Politi, MD, FACP, FACEP
President/CEO
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 17, 2014
PRESS CONTACT:
Shelley Lotenberg
shelley@numc.edu
516-572-6055
NUHEALTH EARNS NATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR PATIENT-CENTERED CARE
Patient-Centered Medical HomeTM 2011 standards emphasize enhanced care through patient-clinician partnership
East Meadow, NY………Victor F. Politi, MD, FACP, FACEP, NuHealth’s President/CEO today announced that four of NuHealth’s LI Federally Qualified Health Centers (LIFQHC) and two outpatient practices at the Nassau University Medical Center (NUMC) have received recognition from the Patient-Centered Medical Home 2011 (PCMH 2011) program from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for using evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long-term participative relationships.
The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is a model of care emphasizing care coordination and communication to transform primary care into “what patients want it to be.” Research shows that medical homes can lead to higher quality and lower costs, and improve patients’ and providers’ reported experiences of care. The PCMH identifies practices that promote partnerships between individual patients and their personal clinicians, instead of treating patient care as the sum of several episodic office visits. Each patient’s care is tended to by clinician-led care teams, who provide for all the patient’s health care needs and coordinate treatment s across the health care system. Medical home clinicians demonstrate the benchmarks of patient-centered care, including open scheduling, expanded hours and appropriate use of proven health information systems.
“The patient-centered medical home raises the bar in defining high-quality care by emphasizing access, health information technology and partnerships between clinicians and patients,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. PCMH Recognition shows that NuHealth/NUMC has the tools, systems and resources to provide their patients with the right care at the right time.”
Dr. Politi, Laurie Ward, MD, NuHealth’s Vice President for Community Medicine and Ambulatory Care and David Nemiroff, Vice President for the LIFQHCs, congratulated the staff at the Elmont, Hempstead, New Cassel, Roosevelt LI Federally Qualified Health Centers and the Omni Internal Medicine Practice at NUMC which all achieved PCMH Level 3 recognition, with the Omni Pediatric Practice receiving recognition for PCMH Level 2: “You are to be congratulated for this notable and impressive achievement and I am very pleased that all our primary care practices are NCQA-PCMH recognized thanks to all your hard work by a very dedicated group of staff.”
To receive recognition, which is valid for three years, NuHealth/NUMC demonstrated the ability to meet the program’s key elements embodying characteristics of the medical home. The standards are aligned with the joint principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home established with the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Osteopathic Association.
NuHealth/NUMC met key program components in the following areas:
• Written standards for patient access and continuity of care
• Use of patient feedback materials
• Appropriate use of charting tools to track patients and organize clinical information
• Responsive care management techniques with an emphasis on preventive care for individual patients and for the entire patient population
• Adaptation to patient’s cultural and linguistic needs
• Use of information technology for prescriptions, test and referral tracking and coordination with other health care providers
• Use of evidence-based guidelines to treat chronic conditions
• Measurement and reporting of clinical and service performance
To find clinicians and their practices that have been recognized by the Patient-Centered Medical Home 2011 program please visit http://recognition.ncqa.org
ABOUT NCQA
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA’s Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information for consumers, purchasers, health care providers and researchers.
ABOUT NUHEALTH
NuHealth is a Long Island health care organization delivering essential medical care and disease and lifestyle management to everyone at every stage of life. Also known as Nassau Health Care Corporation, NuHealth is a public benefit corporation managing the operations of Nassau Medical Center, A. Holly Patterson Extended Care and a network of Family Health Centers that bring primary and specialty care out into the community. By emphasizing wellness, cultural sensitivity and collaborative efforts with the North Shore-LIJ Health System, NuHealth is working to make good care more affordable and easier to access.
For more information about NuHealth or its Centers of Care, visit www.nuhealth.net.