Today, the California Primary Care Association (CPCA) announced that one of its members, the Petaluma Health Center, has received Level 3 Recognition from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for its implementation of the Patient Centered Health Home (PCHH) model of care. The Petaluma Health Center (PHC) has been a part of CPCA's PCHH technical assistance initiative since May 1, 2012, which helped streamline their recognition process.
"NCQA level 3 PCMH recognition is acknowledgement of the quality work that Petaluma Health Center staff performs every day. I am so proud of PHC achieving NCQA recognition at the highest level," said Teresa Tillman , Petaluma Health Center's Quality Director. "Utilizing Arcadia's Accelerator portal provided through CPCA and completing the CPCA coach mock review process was a critical step to submitting our survey. The mock reviewer's attention to detail and accommodation to our timeline was stellar! We appreciate CPCA's support to health centers for this significant achievement."
A health home is an approach to delivering primary care that uses a 'whole person' orientation to provide comprehensive health care by facilitating an active partnership between patients, their family, and their primary care provider team to provide high quality, timely care in a coordinated and consistent way. This approach provides patients with what care they need, when they need it, and patients work as equal partners with their provider team in managing their care.
Health care reform legislation passed in 2010 has encouraged health centers to implement a PCHH model of care as part of system wide reform. CPCA's initiative is built on the NCQA PCMH 2011 Standards, which CPCA believes very closely align with our members' values. The standards set by NCQA describe clear and specific criteria and gives primary care practices information on how to best organize patient care, work in provider teams and track patient health over time.
"We are so pleased to have one of our members receive level three recognition through our initiative. The PCHH initiative, which was officially launched in October, builds on the team based approach to care that health centers have used as their model for many years and leverages their existing strengths to build a sustainable standard for health home activities and services," said CPCA President and CEO Carmela Castellano-Garcia . "Our long-term goal is to have each of our member sites receive PCHH recognition through this program and develop successful health outcomes in their communities."