NACHC, American College of Physicians announce program to offer Medical Home Builder 2.0

The American College of Physicians (ACP) and the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) announced today a national effort to help federally-qualified health centers (FQHCs) improve care by offering ACP's Medical Home Builder (www.medicalhomebuilder.org) 2.0 at a discounted rate. FQHCs also will have the opportunity to join an online community within Medical Home Builder 2.0 to support the NACHC Patient Centered Medical Home Institute.

"Assisting health centers in their transformation into patient centered medical homes is a team effort." said Donald L. Weaver, MD, chief medical officer, National Association of Community Health Centers. "This vital partnership with ACP brings tools and a supportive professional network to support improved care to underserved communities and vulnerable populations."

Community health centers serve the primary health care needs of more than 20 million patients in over 8,000 locations across the United States.

"We are pleased to offer these dedicated health care professionals a tool to identify opportunities to improve quality of care for underserved populations," said Michael S. Barr, MD, FACP, MBA, who leads ACP's Medical Practice, Professionalism & Quality division. "Medical Home Builder 2.0 provides practice teams with a robust self-assessment tool to improve patient care, streamline fundamental business operations, and identify and implement key features of the patient-centered medical home."

Users of ACP's Medical Home Builder 2.0 become part of an online community of practices committed to improving patient care and identifying office efficiencies. The program offers 23 self-paced modules that address the key attributes and expectations of a patient-centered medical home, improving clinical care, and practice management. Each module includes:

• Background information: an explanation of key principles, research, and important concepts for members of the team.
• Practice biopsy: a self-assessment that covers the expectations of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), URAC, and the Joint Commission. The Practice Biopsy helps practices identify opportunities for improvement or validate efforts already undertaken.
• Case Study: "How It Works in Practice" describes the efforts of a practice as it works through the findings generated through each module.
• Module-specific Resource Library: each module's Resource Library includes relevant references, guides, and sample policies in a variety of formats. The resources from each module are aggregated in a master Resource Library that now includes over 800 sources of information -- a virtual bookshelf to access at any time.
• Reporting functions to help track progress over-time, identify opportunities for improvement and compare practices.