University of Utah Health’s primary care clinics were recognized for the second year in a row by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for their efforts to create Patient-Centered Medical Homes (PCMHs).
A PCMH is a team-based health care delivery model that emphasizes access and continuity, care coordination, collaboration, and patient involvement in improving and maintaining patient health.
"Receiving the recognition as a Patient Centered Medical Home means that we partner with our patients to provide the most comprehensive primary care available," said Julie Day, MD, medical director at Redwood Health Center. "We take care of both physical and emotional needs while making sure care is seamlessly coordinated."
Day, with Annie Mervis, Emily Carlson, Chanda Sundara, and Hannah Payne, led efforts to obtain official recognition by NCQA, a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care quality.
Their team partnered with clinicians, nursing, and clinic managers from internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics to meet a number of rigorous standards, including collecting and sharing data and achieving progress on key quality metrics.
Patients remark that it is easier to get an appointment, they spend less time in the waiting room, they feel like the staff and providers know them, and that their experience receiving care is seamless.
Thirteen primary care clinics received the recognition:
- Centerville Health Center
- Farmington Health Center
- Greenwood Health Center
- Madsen Family Medicine
- Parkway Health Center
- Redstone Health Center
- Redwood Health Center
- South Jordan Health Center
- South Main Health Center
- Stansbury Health Center
- Sugarhouse Family Medicine
- University Pediatric Clinic
- Westridge Health Center
The NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home program reflects the input of the American College of Physicians (ACP), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and American Osteopathic Association (AOA) and others.