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The medical home model may allow better access to health care, increase patient satisfaction and improve patient health.

Here’s a term you may hear more often in the coming months: medical home.

A medical home isn’t a building. It isn’t even an actual place.

A medical home is more like a neighborhood of people who are your health care team. In the center of this figurative town is you. A few streets over, perhaps, is your hospital, your orthopedist or your diabetes educator. Nearby is the surgeon who repaired your hernia.

And right next door to you is your primary care provider—the so-called block captain of your health care.

The medical home is a new model in health care that’s being implemented around the country. Progress is being tracked. What works will be enhanced, and what doesn’t will be changed as needed to meet the mission.

And that is? According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, medical homes may allow better access to health care, increase patient satisfaction and improve patient health.

How a medical home works

In a medical home, your primary care provider (PCP) coordinates whatever care you need utilizing a patient care team that provides comprehensive care to its patients with the goal of obtaining maximized health outcomes.

For example, if you need a specialist, your PCP’s staff will help find the right one for you. That specialist then becomes part of your medical home, treating you in partnership with your provider.

If you need emergency care at night, the hospital in your medical home neighborhood will have access to your electronic medical records. The goal is to provide seamless and efficient health care while reducing cost. And a big part of what makes that possible is information technology, such as electronic medical records.

Key features of a medical home

The medical home is one answer to rapidly changing health care concerns. As more challenges arise, the health care industry expects that medical homes, too, will evolve.

But some of the key features aren’t likely to change. They include:

• A personal patient care coordinator who works with your PCP as an added resource for you, not a replacement for your physician.
• A phone number or secure email address to contact a member of your medical home around-the-clock.
• Expanded hours for seeing your provider.
• Flexible scheduling, with same-day appointments.

To learn more about medical homes, visit www.pcpcc.org.

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Contact the GRH Regional Medical Clinic at 541-663-3138 and the GRH Children’s Clinic at 541-663-3150. Both are Patient-Centered Primary Care Medical Homes that have met the criteria and standards as prescribed by the state of Oregon.