Patient-Centered Medical Home Capacity and Ambulatory Care Utilization

Abstract

The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) has increasingly received attention as a model of care to potentially remedy the cost and quality problems that confront the US health care system, including and especially ambulatory care-related issues. This study examined the association between physician practices' PCMH capacity and 3 indicators of ambulatory care utilization: (1) emergency department utilization, (2) ambulatory care sensitive hospitalization rate, and (3) 30-day all-cause readmission rate. Results show that overall PCMH capacity is associated with lower rates, and technical aspects of the PCMH in particular were associated with lower utilization rates while interpersonal capabilities were not.

Keywords: ambulatory care; longitudinal analysis; patient-centered medical home.