A Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is not a place but a concept. PCMH facilitates partnerships between individual patients, their personal physicians or care providers, and the patient’s family. It is a way of coordinating all health services in a quality, cost-effective and accessible manner through use of a team approach to health care that is centered on patient and family needs. Team-centered care is especially important given significant workforce constraints in most rural communities where physician-led care may not be available.

The Patient-Centered Medical Home encompasses five functions and attributes:

• Patient-centered
• Comprehensive care
• Coordinated care
• Continuous access
• A systems-based approach to quality and safety

Quality care delivered in a PCMH model is enabled by health information technology, health information exchange and the use of registries and other tools to assure that patients get culturally and linguistically appropriate care when and where they need it.

Read the full joint Colorado Rural Health Center and ClinicNet paper here