JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. –
Naval Health Clinic Charleston recently received Level 3 Patient Centered Medical Home recognition by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, the highest level of recognition a healthcare facility can receive from NCQA. NHCC is also the only facility in the Navy recognized by NCQA for using an "Integrated Medical Home Model," a system where primary care providers from multiple disciplines provide care to patients across the age spectrum - all from the same Medical Home teams.
"We have been working on refining the Patient Centered Medical Home model for the past few years by developing new standards and protocols for use within the organization," said Capt. Mary Kim Kenney-Gutshall, NHCC commanding officer.
"Change brings opportunity and in the case of Patient Centered Medical Home - this change brings the opportunity for better patient and family centered care. The bottom line is this is a better way to operate because it provides better outcomes for our patients."
"Our patients now see familiar faces every time they visit us," said Cmdr. Patrick Gover, NHCC medical home lead physician. "This builds trust and means they have access to a team of health care providers that have immense knowledge of them personally. Our integrated teams can literally take care of patients from birth to grave. This sets us apart from what other facilities are doing. Our patients benefit from this and from a provider standpoint, it is fantastic to work daily side-by-side with other specialists on a fully integrated Medical Home Port team."
The successful staffing and implementation of an Integrated Medical Home model directly correlates with extremely positive trends in local patient satisfaction. For the first time in this region, patient satisfaction at NHCC exceeded regional civilian benchmarks. According to the TRICARE Patient Satisfaction Survey released in early 2012, "patient satisfaction with their provider" is 88.5 percent at NHCC compared to the local civilian practice benchmark of 77.8 percent. Overall, individuals surveyed stated less than one out of 10 times that the reason they used civilian care was that civilian care was better. These results further reflect the successful implementation of NHCC's Integrated Medical Home and NHCC's efforts to keep enrolled patients in the direct care system.