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Hope for Primary Care

There is hope for Primary Care and Family Medicine practices, despite the constant drumbeat of negative news.

HOPE for PRIMARY CARE A letter from Susan Andrews, MD Family Practice Partners - Murfreesboro, TN A letter from Louis A. Kazal, Jr., MD Dartmouth-Hitchcock Community Health Center - Lebanon, New Hampshire A letter from Robin Kollman, MD Kollman Clinic, Inc - Dover, Ohio A letter from Kim Leatham, MD Virginia Mason Winslow Clinic - Bainbridge Island, Washington A letter from Randall C Rickard, MD Family Practice Partners - Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

All across the nation, every day – committed Family Medicine and Primary Care providers, administrators and staff are transforming the delivery of care in order to become Patient Centered Medical Homes. This transformation includes nurturing a continuous relationship and respectful partnership with patients. Addressing access and convenience for patients. Improving patient health and wellness. Providing continuity of care across fragmented services. Integrating evidence-based best practices and community-based resources. Implementing Electronic Health Records and patient registries...

And these transformations are taking place at the same time that these practices are providing day-to-day acute and chronic care to their patients, coding and billing for visits... all the normal functions of a primary care practice continue apace.

It's a daunting task. So much so that the National Demonstration Project's (NDP) researchers described it this way: Transforming a primary care practice to a Patient Centered Medical Home is like rebuilding an airplane— while the plane is flying!

Primary care is the core of health care delivery in America and these needed practice transformations are difficult. But there is hope. There is an evidence-based model for the necessary transformations for primary care practices to become Patient Centered Medical Homes, accommodating practices of many sizes and budgets.

The letters you read here were solicited from the members of the Touchstone Group (the practices that participated in the 2-year National Demonstration Project) in response to a recent study released by Physicians' Foundation. The family physicians in the Touchstone Group practices are agents of change and speak from valuable experience.

Do you have an opinion you'd like to share? Email update@TransforMED.com.