PLATTSBURGH — Health-care providers across the region are fine-tuning their efforts to improve patient access to physicians and other providers.

The Adirondack Regional Medical Home Pilot, emphasizing preventive health-care measures to ward off serious and costly illnesses, has forged ahead in its first year of activity, with several highlights already under its belt.

"With the Medical Home, patients are actively involved in their health care," said CVPH Medical Center President Stephens Mundy.

ELECTRONIC RECORDS

The program focuses on strengthening patients' connections with their primary-care physicians, Mundy said, noting that improved record-keeping and focus on prevention will allow patients to take on a more active role.

"We have 27 participating practices in our region," including Plattsburgh, Malone and Elizabethown, said Karen Ashline, director of the regional program. "Everyone's moving forward at this time with the ultimate goal that every practice will have electronic medical records up and running."

The program also hopes to establish an electronic-prescription program so that doctors can submit most prescriptions to the pharmacy electronically, and the patient can then pick them up when needed.

STANDARDS OF PRACTICE

Physicians involved in the program are using nine uniform standards of practice to ensure the region is offering a consistent quality of care.

Broken into two categories — adult primary care and pediatrics — the program has highlighted specialized areas of concern for each group.

For pediatricians, obesity, preventive care and asthma are the areas of focus, while physicians for adult care are pinpointing diabetes, high-blood pressure and coronary artery disease.

"Physicians are looking at evidence-based guidelines — the same measures across the board — to measure the success of the program," Ashline said.

INSTANT UPDATES

"Will this help me take better care of any individual patient—" said Plattsburgh physician Dr. David Anderson. "I'm not sure it will, but it will give me a better understanding of how my practice is doing as a whole."

Anderson and his staff have been switching over to a complete electronic medical-records format over the past year.

Each time Anderson sees a patient, he records that day's exam electronically and updates the patient's history in the computer files.

"In some ways, the Medical Home is not so much an agent of change but more of a system designed to take care of people with more organized records.

"A lot of it is driven from a business perspective, how we can make health care more efficient and less expensive."

Improved medical records will help cut down on complications from unnecessary medical procedures, fewer duplication of tests and better control of interaction from prescription medications, he added.

BETTER REIMBURSEMENT

The program will also benefit physicians by improving connections with insurance companies and gaining improved reimbursement rates for primary-care services.

"It may go a long way to revitalize primary care," Anderson said. "Fewer doctors are going into primary care; a new doctor is three times more likely to go into a specialist field.

"One of the drivers (for promoting the Medical Home concept) is that if you participate as a primary-care doctor and meet the criteria, you will be reimbursed at a higher level."

ASSESSING CARE

Plattsburgh's four pediatrician offices meet on a regular basis to discuss regional health-care issues as part of their involvement in the Medical Home.

"We sit down together and talk about how we're going to approach disease, how we're going to synchronize care," said Dr. Heidi Moore of Mountain View Pediatrics.

"It's an assurance that each patient is going to receive the same quality of care, no matter where they go.

"We've held hospital department meetings once a month for a long time, but they were designed more toward housekeeping issues," she added. "We've never come together for outpatient care to the extent we are now."

Moore's office has been using electronic medical records since opening about five years ago and moved into the program with a head start on their record-keeping.

But the Medical Home will help them and the other primary-care offices provide the evidence that shows they have been following acceptable standard when caring for their patients.

"We focus on many ways to improve our quality of care," Moore said. "When we do a report that shows our level of care, there's no doubt."

RECRUITMENT

Whereas the region is facing a shortage in family doctors, pediatrics is well covered, and Moore expects the service to continue doing well locally as the Medical Home concept grows.

"With better reimbursements (through Medical Home incentives) and top-of-the-line technology, that's the kind of stuff that you can sit down at the recruiting table and attract the best doctors to the region."

E-mail Jeff Meyers at: jmeyers@pressrepublican.com