Offering Patients a Medical Home – Not a Hallway – and a Stronger Health System

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Healthcare Quarterly 22(3) October 2019

 

Abstract

This article examines three family health teams (FHTs) in different Ontario communities that exemplify the features of a Patient's Medical Home (PMH), a vision developed by the College of Family Physicians of Canada. With PMH supports and foundations in place, these FHTs deliver high-quality care enabled by strong PMH functions: accessible, comprehensive, patient- and family-centred continuous care that is responsive to a community's unique needs. Adhering to PMH principles not only improves patient experience, health outcomes and provider satisfaction but also leads to fewer unnecessary hospital admissions and emergency room visits – system savings and better use of public resources.

Featured FHTs:

  • Marathon FHT's High-Yield Approach to Risk Mitigation and Safety (HARMS): A program for safer opioid prescribing through systematic risk stratification and urine drug testing

  • Markham FHT's Eating Disorders Bridge Program

  • Peterborough FHT: New services improve primary care access to an underserviced region

Authors

  • Leanne Clarke, CEO, Ontario College of Family Physicians
  • Kavita Mehta, CEO, Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario.

 

Care plans reduce risk of ending up in hospital for patients with severe mental illness: study

The chances of a patient with a serious mental illness ending up in hospital because of their condition are reduced by almost 40 per cent if they have a care plan, according to the research.

The study, which tracked 20,000 patients with a severe mental illness through the healthcare system, also found that seeing the same GP reduced the risk of an unplanned hospital admission by around 25 per cent.

Tags
Mental Health Care
evidence of value
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