Table 1.
Personal physician | (i) Patients have an ongoing relationship with a personal physician (ii) First contact, continuous, and comprehensive care |
Physician directed medical practice | (i) Personal physician leads a team of individuals at the practice level (ii) Collective responsibility for the ongoing care of patients |
Whole-person orientation | (i) Medical home provides for all the patient's healthcare needs or appropriately arranges care with other qualified professionals (ii) Care for all stages of life: acute care, chronic care, preventive services, and end-of-life care |
Care is coordinated and/or integrated | (i) Coordination of care across the healthcare system and patient's community (ii) Care is facilitated by registries, information technology, health information exchange, use of interpreters, and other means |
Quality and safety | (i) Quality and safety improvement are hallmarks of the medical home (ii) Specific activities could include individualized care plans, evidence-based decision support tools, collection and reporting of quality improvement data, use of information technology, and voluntary certification of practices as medical homes |
Enhanced access | (i) Patients can easily access healthcare via their medical home (ii) Specific improvements could include open access scheduling, expanded hours, and enhanced phone or e-mail communication |
Payment | (i) Increased payments support the added level of service and value provided to patients who receive care from a medical home |
*Stenger et al. [1].