The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recently announced Medicor Associates of Chautauqua with offices in Fredonia, Dunkirk, Cassadaga, Cherry Creek and Barnes Primary Care Associates with offices in Silver Creek and Angola, have received recognition from the Physician Practice Connections Patient-Centered Medical Home (PPC-PCMH) program 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 promising model of health care delivery that aims to improve the quality and efficiency of care. PPC-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 teams, who provide for all the patient's health care needs and coordinate treatments 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. Early evaluations of the PPC-PCMH have shown promising results in improving care quality and lowering costs by increasing access to more efficient, more coordinated care. By avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations and emergency room visits, these early results are producing savings for payers, purchasers and patients.
"The patient-centered medical home promises to improve health and health care," NCQA President Margaret E. O'Kane said. "The active, ongoing relationship between a patient and a clinician in medical homes fosters an all-too-rare goal in care: staying healthy and preventing illness in the first place. PPC-PCMH Recognition shows that Medicor Associates of Chautauqua and Barnes Medical Associates have tools, systems and resources to provide their patients with the right care, in the right setting, at the right time."
"This national recognition acknowledges our physicians' goal to provide the highest quality medical care and diagnostic services for the efficiency and convenience to our patients," Bob Fisher, COO of the division, said. "The innovative leadership and emphasis on preventative care of our founding partners and diligent efforts of our management staff has been appropriately recognized by NCQA."
To receive recognition, which is valid for three years, Medicor Associates of Chautauqua and Barnes Medical Associates 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 jointly established by the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Osteopathic Association.
Medicor Associates of Chautauqua and Barnes Medical Associates met key program components in the following areas:
Written standards for patient access and enhanced communications
Appropriate use of charting tools to track patients and organize clinical information
Responsive care management techniques with an emphasis on preventative care
Adaptation to patient's cultural and linguistic needs
Use of information technology for prescriptions and care management
Use of evidence-based guidelines to treat chronic conditions
Systematic tracking of referrals and test results
Measurement and reporting of clinical and service performance
To find primary care medical practices and clinicians affiliated with practice sites that have been recognized by the Physician Practice Connections Patient-Centered Medical Home program, please visit recognition.ncqa.org For further information, contact NCQA Customer Support at (888) 275-7585.
About NCQA
Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2010, NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations.
About Medicor Associates Internal Medicine Division
In 2001, Chautauqua Medical Associates of Drs. G. J. Bishop, Anthony O. Bartholomew, Andrew J. Landis and Hyder Alam affiliated with Medicor Associates, Inc. of Erie, PA. to better serve residents of northern Chautauqua County. Over the past eleven years, the Internal Medicine Division has grown to include 14 physicians and seven physician extenders with six practice sites in our area. Medicor Associates, Inc. is the cardiology group of the Heart Institute of UPMC Hamot. Thomson Reuters has recognized UPMC Hamot eight times since 1999, most recently in 2011, for having one of the country's Top 50 heart programs. Again this year and for the sixth time since 2000, UPMC Hamot was named a Top 100 U.S. Hospital by Thomson Reuters. U.S. News & World Report named UPMC Hamot among America's Best Regional Hospitals for 2012 in addition to numerous other "Best" or "Top 50" rankings for the past eight years.
For more information, visit UPMCHamot.org.
