The National Committee for Quality Assurance today announced that all nine of the Memorial Health University Physicians’ primary care practices throughout the region have received NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home Recognition for using evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long-term, participative relationships.

The MHUP practices, which are located in Savannah, Wilmington Island, Richmond Hill, and Rincon, Georgia, and Bluffton, South Carolina, received Level 3 recognition – NCQA’s highest level of distinction. MHUP – Family Medicine Center in Savannah received PCMH recognition in 2012 and was the first physician practice in coastal Georgia to receive Level 3 designation.

The NCQA PCMH 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 healthcare system. Research shows that medical homes can lead to higher quality and lower costs, and can improve patient- and provider-reported experiences of care.

“NCQA PCMH Recognition raises the bar in defining high-quality care by emphasizing access, health information technology, and coordinated care focused on patients,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “Recognition shows that MHUP’s primary care practices have the tools, systems, and resources to provide their patients with the right care at the right time.”

 “This recognition reinforces Memorial Health’s commitment to patients and their families,” said Thomas J. Hogan Jr., M.D., chair of Memorial’s primary care steering committee. “Our nurse care coordinators, working in conjunction with physicians, nurses, technicians, pharmacists, and other health professionals, have helped hundreds of our primary care patients become active participants in managing their health.”

Robert Pallay, M.D., co-chair of Memorial’s primary care steering committee, said patients are not the only ones who benefit from the PCMH model. “As a physician in a PCMH practice, I find it very reassuring to know that my team is anticipating my patients’ needs and working side by side with them and their families,” he said.

To earn recognition, which is valid for three years, the MHUP practices 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.