Joint Base Journal Vol. 4, No. 5
February 8, 2013
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J OINT B ASE A NACOSTIA-B OLLING
www.cnic.navy.mil/jbab
579th Medical Group earns national recognition for patient-centered care BY 79TH MEDICAL WING PUBLIC AFFAIRS WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has announced that the 579th Medical Group (579 MDG) of Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling (JBAB) has received recognition from the Patient-Centered Medical Home 2011 (PCMH 2011) program for using evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long term participative relationships. The patient-centered medical home is a model of care emphasizing care coordination and communication to transform primary care into “what patients want it to be.” Research shows that medical homes can lead to higher quality and lower costs, and improve patients’ and providers’ reported experiences of care. The PCMH identifies practices that promote partnerships between individual patients and their personal clinicians, instead of treating patient care as the sum
of several episodic office visits. “Our clinical focus at the 579 MDG is primary care. By focusing on primary care, we empower everyone on JBAB to reach optimal health. The award of NCQA level 3 recognition shows patients we are reaching towards our vision to be the National Capital Region’s home for world class primary care,” said Col. Kathryn Tate, 579 MDG commander. Each patient’s care is tended to by clinician-led care teams, who provide for all the patient’s health care needs and coordinate treatments across the health care system. Medical home clinicians demonstrate the benchmarks of patientcentered care, including open scheduling, expanded hours and appropriate use of proven health information systems. “The patient-centered medical home raises the bar in defining high-quality care by emphasizing access, health information technology and partnerships between clinicians and patients,” said NCQA presi-
U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY PAUL BELLO
Members of the 579th Medical Group perform an exercise in clinical care Wednesday at their clinic on Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling. Pictured are (Left-Right) Senior Airman Lucas Jensen, medical technician; Senior Airman Kendra Riley, medical technician and Capt. Patricia Evans, family medical physician. dent Margaret E. O’Kane. “PCMH Recognition shows that the 579 MDG has the tools, systems and resources to provide their patients with the right care at the right time.”
To receive recognition, which is valid for three years, the 579 MDG has demonstrated the ability to meet the program’s key elements embodying characteristics of the medi-
cal home. The standards are aligned with the joint principles of the PatientCentered Medical Home established with the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Fam-
ily Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Osteopathic Association. The 579 MDG has met key program components in the following areas: • Written standards for patient access and continuity of care • Use of patient feedback materials • Appropriate use of charting tools to track patients and organize clinical information • Responsive care management techniques with an emphasis on preventive care for individual patients and for the entire patient population • Adaptation to patient’s cultural and linguistic needs • Use of information technology for prescriptions, test and referral tracking and coordination with other health care providers • Use of evidence-based guidelines to treat chronic conditions • Measurement and reporting of clinical and service performance
DoD, Veterans Affairs to speed integration of health records BY JIM GARAMONE AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
WASHINGTON - The secretaries of Defense and Veterans Affairs announced their departments will speed implementation of the Integrated Electronic Health Record program, allowing service members and veterans better access and more importantly, better medical care. “This approach is affordable, achievable, and if we
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refocus our efforts we believe we can achieve the key goal of a seamless system for health records between VA and DOD on a greatly accelerated schedule,” said Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta following a meeting with Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki at VA headquarters here. The departments are able to step up the records program because of advances in information technology while working with existing platforms. The original goal was to have the system
deployed by 2018. Now the expectation is by the end of next year. The goal is to provide one set of electronic records from entry into the military through veteran status. The program is designed to allow service members or veterans to download information and present it to doctors or other health care providers without delays. Previously, service members had to hand carry paper files from DOD facilities to Veterans Affairs.
Once complete, the record program will provide DOD and VA clinicians with the complete medical records of more than 18 million service members, veterans and their beneficiaries. “We’ve agreed to improve interoperability before the end of this year by standardizing health care data,” Shinseki said. The two departments will also accelerate the exchange of realtime data by September. The departments are upgrading the graphical user
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interface to display the new standardized VA and DOD healthcare date by the end of this year, Shinseki said. “By this summer, DOD and VA will field and begin conducting a pilot program on the common interface for doctors at seven joint rehab centers across the country and we’ll also expand its use at two other sites,” Panetta said. “All of these facilities will be interoperable by the end of July 2013, so fast time track, but we think we can get it done.”
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These centers will be in San Antonio, Minneapolis, Palo Alto, Calif., Tampa, Fla., Richmond, Va., Anchorage, Alaska, and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. “Rather than building a single, integrated system from scratch, we will focus our immediate efforts on integrating VA and DOD health data as quickly as possible by upgrading our existing systems,” Panetta said.