Medical Home is About Patients First

But often, too little time is spent on the way patients view the changes they are expected to make under the medical home organizational philosophy. I was intrigued by the fact that most of the sources with whom I spoke treated the medical home concept not only as an opportunity to reorganize the ways they deliver care, but also to educate patients on why the way their care was changing was better.

That's because on the surface, to the patient who is not privy to all of the technological and organizational revision that is behind how their visit is conducted, it might seem as though they are being shunted off to lower-level employees so the physician doesn't have to spend as much time with them.

In reality, they're getting much more individualized attention—in most cases. It's up to the provider to explain why the new way they're interacting with their physician is preferable.

Instead of showing up unprepared for an appointment likely booked months previous, patients get phone calls, pre-visit planning meetings, lab visits, and the like in preparation for the physician visit so that time is used more productively.