Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates announced today that all 16 of its internal medicine practices have received the highest possible national accreditation as a Level 3 Patient-Centered Medical Home from The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). NCQA’s Physician Practice Connections® Patient-Centered Medical Home™ program (PPC-PCMH) program recognizes physician practices that prioritize the strengthening of the physician-patient relationship, coordinate primary care for patients across multiple settings, and engage in a team approach to improving patient care.
“The patient-centered medical home promises to improve health and health care,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “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 Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates has tools, systems and resources to provide its patients with the right care at the right time.”
In a patient-centered medical home model, each patient has an ongoing relationship with a personal physician who leads a team at a single location that takes responsibility for patient care, providing for the patient’s health care needs and arranging for appropriate care with other clinicians. The medical home is intended to result in more personalized, coordinated, effective and efficient care. A medical home achieves these goals through a high level of accessibility, providing excellent communication among patients, physicians and staff and taking full advantage of the latest information technology to prescribe, communicate, track test results, obtain clinical support information and monitor patient health.
Harvard Vanguard joins other Atrius Health affiliates in achieving Level 3 status, making Atrius Health one of the largest practice groups in the country to achieve this NCQA medical home designation across 35 of its internal medicine office locations.