We are thrilled to announce that Horizon Family Medicine is now PCMH certified — which is great news for our patients.
What is PCMH certification?
PCMH stands for Patient-Centered Medical Home, meaning that health care is focused on patients. To be a PCMH certified practice means that the medical practice has shown a proven commitment to:
- Health care decisions that are patient focused,
- Doctor and patient partnerships for decision-making,
- A whole health approach, not just a focus on medical problems,
- A comprehensive, whole-health approach to medical care, and
- Healthy living goals based on each patient’s unique medical needs (weight loss, smoking cessation, etc).
How is a PCMH practice different?
The main focus of PCMH care is to provide care that looks at a patient’s comprehensive health — not just medical disease and illness. A primary goal of PCMH is to prevent problems through proactive medical care. To accomplish this, your medical team will provide tips, health trackers and referrals to community resources to help you actively manage your own health, particularly with chronic medical conditions between doctor visits. As a PCMH, we will work to coordinate medical care with your specialists and emergency room and hospital care. In short, provider and patient work as a team to achieve your health goals.
What is the patient’s role in PCMH?
PCMH works when the patient takes an active role in their own medical care. When diagnosed with a medical condition, your provider will give you resources, but it is the patient’s responsibility to use them between medical visits to achieve health goals. At appointments, you and your provider will develop a medical plan for you to follow at home. Do your best to follow that plan. Come to appointments with any questions you have about your medical plan so your provider can help you achieve your goals. Always bring your medications — including any over the counter and herbal remedies — to your medical appointments. Let your provider know of any hospitalizations and emergency room visits that happen between appointments.
There are many resources available on our website. You can access them at any time by clicking on the Resources Tab at the top of the page. From the dropdown menu you can pick:
- HFM Resources (forms and medical health trackers, articles from our doctors about current medical topics);
- Community Resources (which include support groups and community classes for a variety of health concerns from pregnancy to diabetes to smoking cessation and more)
- Online Resources (how to pay for medical care, advance directives, and general health and wellness resources)
- Patient Portal (to communicate with your provider — especially useful to request appointments, prescription refills and communicate questions on weekends or after hours)
PCMH is a partnership. Working together as a doctor-patient team, patients achieve the best health outcomes. For those with chronic health issues, we look forward to partnering with you to achieve better health. If you are currently healthy, we look forward to helping you stay that way even when health issues arise.