The Cleveland Clinic is the first health care provider to receive the Joint Commission’s Primary Care Medical Home certification.
The Joint Commission started its medical home certification option for hospitals in early 2013. The Cleveland Clinic is the first provider of any kind to receive the certification, according to the commission. It covers 39 practices at 29 Cleveland Clinic sites, involving 230 primary care physicians and advanced practice nurses.
"This certification recognizes our striving to be national leaders in population management and transformation of the care delivery model in the United States," said Dr. David L. Longworth, chair of the Medicine Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, in a statement.
To be certified by the Joint Commission, hospitals must already be accredited, and offer services from primary care clinicians – that can include physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. The hospitals are evaluated in five major areas: patient centeredness, comprehensiveness, coordinated care, access to care, and a systems-based approach to quality and safety. Patient centeredness, for instance, includes assessing a patient’s health literacy and including patients in their treatment plan. For access, a medical home has to provide care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition to urgent care, that can include clinical advice services by telephone.
The Cleveland Clinic had an on-site survey in September to determine if it met the parameters for certification.
The Joint Commission’s accreditation program is one of several aiming to give nationally recognized credentials to providers.
The National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA) has recognized about 7,000 primary care practices, encompassing almost 35,000 clinicians, as meeting its patient-centered medical home requirements. Thirty-seven states incorporate NCQA requirements into patient-centered medical home–related legislation, according to the organization. In late March, the NCQA will be unveiling updated medical home requirements.
The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care also offers medical home accreditation, as does URAC, which aligns its program with principles outlined by the major primary care societies.
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