Positive Health Clinic earns national recognition for Patient-Centered Care
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has announced that the Allegheny Health Network Positive Health Clinic has received NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Recognition for using evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long-term, participative relationships.
The NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home is a model of primary care that combines teamwork and information technology to improve care, improve patients’ experience of care and reduce costs. Medical homes foster ongoing partnerships between patients and their personal clinicians, instead of approaching care as the sum of episodic office visits. Each patient’s care is overseen by clinician-led care teams that coordinate treatment across the health care system. Research <http://www.ncqa.org> shows that medical homes can lead to higher quality and lower costs, and can improve patient and provider reported experiences of care.
The Positive Health Clinic (PHC), which is under the leadership of Stuart Fisk, CRNP, Chiu-Bin Hsiao, MD, and Judy Adams, MSN, RN, is a Ryan White Care Act/HRSA funded medical clinic for persons with HIV, providing comprehensive state-of-the-art primary care to HIV-positive persons. The PHC staff is made up of two infectious disease physicians, an internal medicine physician, a family practice physician, a pharmacist, two nurse practitioners and a physician assistant, as well as a multidisciplinary support team from Allegheny General Hospital. Patients receive a wide range of primary and specialized HIV care, regardless of their medical insurance coverage or ability to pay. PHC provides high quality, patient-centered care to almost 800 people living with HIV.
To earn recognition, which is valid for three years, the Positive Health Clinic demonstrated the ability to meet the program’s key elements, embodying characteristics of the medical home. NCQA standards 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.
“It’s gratifying to see the staff of the Positive Health Clinic achieve this well-deserved recognition,” said Susan Manzi, MD, MPH, Chair, Department of Medicine, Allegheny Health Network. “Since its inception, the Positive Health Clinic has embodied the ideals of the PCMH concept and distinguished itself by forging lasting partnerships with patients and providing them with team-based, patient-centered care of the highest quality.”
