Purpose
Health
care reform efforts often begin by focusing on conditions and processes
specific to adult patients, and this focus can result in challenges for
pediatric-serving practitioners to meet required improvements. One example was
the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) transformation effort following the
National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) guidelines.
Realizing
the potential challenges to be faced by pediatric practices, the Vermont Child
Health Improvement Program (VCHIP) and the Department of Vermont Health Access
(DVHA) of the State of Vermont partnered together to support pediatric-informed
facilitators to help pediatric practices during PCMH transformation.
Methods
This
study characterizes the impact of pediatric-informed facilitators, provides
benchmark data on NCQA scores, number of facilitation meetings and the time
between facilitation start and end, and compares pediatric and adult-serving
practices.
Results
This
study found no difference between pediatric and matched adult-serving practices
in NCQA score, number of facilitation meetings, or weeks to NCQA scoring.
Conclusion
These
results suggest that pediatric-informed facilitators can help pediatric
practices achieve NCQA PCMH recognition on par with practices serving adult
patients. Supporting primary care practices with specialty-informed
facilitators can assist integration into health care reform efforts.