The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 is designed to ensure that all Americans have access to quality, affordable healthcare; and, hopes to create the transformation within the healthcare system necessary to contain costs.
One key part of the act outlines a change in the payment structure between insurance companies and physician groups. Instead of paying physicians for simply treating sick patients, the new law provides incentives for keeping patients healthy.
This new model of healthcare is already operating at Healthcare Partners’ medical clinics here in Southern Nevada. In fact, medical groups across the nation are looking to us to show them how it works.
The best practice of patient-centered, integrated healthcare is HealthCare Partners’ Total Care Model. Our medical practitioners provide patients with comprehensive healthcare beyond typical clinical services. HealthCare Partners strives to provide quality care that is multi-faceted, deeply integrated and accessible, and boasts one of the best customer service rankings in Nevada. We are not just doctors and healthcare professionals; we are our patients’ partners in health.
Total Care encompasses everything a patient needs to stay healthy and prevent illness. A good doctor should not only be able to effectively treat a patient’s illness, but prevent the patient from becoming ill. Every tool and resource at our medical practitioners’ disposal is integrated to improve efficiency and accuracy in anticipating, understanding and meeting our patients’ needs.
HealthCare Partners’ patient-centered medical homes focus on delivering quality care while maintaining personal responsibility and accountability for the ongoing care of our patients. A medical home is exactly what it refers to, a place where a patient’s medical team comes under one roof as “a family” headed by a primary care doctor. The total care team includes specialists, nurses and case managers, carefully selected to create a tailored preventative and/or recovery plan for each patient. The goal is to improve patients’ confidence knowing they have a medical home they chose and believe in.
Patient-centered care provides Southern Nevadans with a wide range of benefits, from updated electronic personal health records and preventative care, to doctors and nurses who are accessible and readily available. Traditionally, patients have one primary care physician and unrelated specialists who don’t necessarily communicate or work cooperatively in the patient’s care process. Total Care replaces this disjointed method of care with a cohesive team that works with all entities along the healthcare continuum to create an individualized care plan for each patient.
A Total Care team works with a patient and the patient’s family to provide services including hospitalization, skilled nursing facilities, self-management, home healthcare, communication, transportation, and other issues that impact the patient’s access to healthcare. In medical homes, each medical team member works together to streamline and expedite a patient’s care. The patient is at the core of every decision. Not only does this model benefit the patient, it benefits practitioners as well.
Total Care measures success by the percentage of healthy patients, illness prevention and patient satisfaction. versus a simple fee for service. Accepting full responsibility for a patient’s care incentivizes healthcare professionals to keep patients healthy. Working together, doctors and insurance companies can save money by cutting back on unnecessary treatments and procedures while striving to improve healthcare. However, for the model to be successful, practitioners must follow through with their commitment to preventative care.
Good health should not be complicated. Medical practitioners have an obligation to provide patients with the best quality care possible. The commitment goes beyond politics, changing laws or adding rules. Our practitioners proactively seek to provide our patients with the necessary resources and information to maintain healthy lifestyles. For the Southern Nevada healthcare community, bringing health reform starts in medical clinics by providing Total Care.
Medical practitioners must earn the right to be considered their patients’ medical home. I invite Nevada’s healthcare community to join us in our efforts to change the way Nevadans view healthcare. Nevada deserves the best healthcare. Together we can bring effective, real time healthcare transformation to our communities.