In March, a team from SETMA will attend the 7th National Medical Home Summit in Philadelphia.  The team will conduct a Preconference entitled “SETMA’s Medical Home Journey -- The Continuing Pursuit of Excellence.”  The following is a list of the pre-conference faculty.

Many groups have come to SETMA to learn about medical home.   Included are groups from Mainland China, an upcoming group from Australia,  groups from Baylor/Scott and White, Kelsey Seybold, and from multiple Schools of Medicine including University of Texas and Texas A&M.  In addition, SETMA has a Patient-Centered Medical Home Externship for Senior Medical Students and Primary Care Residents where they spend a month at SETMA to learn about PC-MH. 

Because of SETMA being the ONLY practice in America which has accreditation from all four PC-MH accrediting organizations €“ Joint Commission (JACHO), National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), URAC , Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) €“ a great deal of interest has come our way. 

SETMA’s CEO is invited to tell SETMA’s story all over the country. When the invitation came from the Medical Home Summit, SETMA’s CEO thought of including members of SETMA’s accreditation team.  This team is unique in healthcare and others want to learn about SETMA’s approach.  These accreditations also must be renewed every three years.  The only way we can do the renewals without it interfering with our practice is to systemize the effort.  SETMA also has a Community Council where patients are invited to meet to discuss healthcare and SETMA; the following link is to an article about the Council:  SETMA€™s Patient-Centered Medical Home and the Consumer Council.   SETMA will also be taking three patients to the conference to discuss their participation in SETMA’s Medical Home.  The following link is to the faculty for the conference:  http://jameslhollymd.com/pat-index.cfm.

The including of SETMA’s accreditation team in this conference is also an extension of our practice of involving as many of our team in outside activities as possible.  When SETMA colleagues have the opportunity to hear and to see the response of others to SETMA, it increases their personal commitment to excellence.  January 12-13, one of SETMA’s team members accompanied our CEO to a conference at the American Academy of Family Practice (AAFP).   Not only is that team member involved in a research project with the AAFP, but he heard and related to other members of the team statements made about SETMA, such as, “SETMA is here because you have a set a standard which no one else has been able to meet,” and “We have not been able to recreate what SETMA has done.  SETMA is ahead of 99.9% of other medical groups.” 

The Summit is one of many conferences conducted each year.  There is no industry which has more education conference than healthcare.  This is partly due to requirement for healthcare providers to earn Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits, but also because no industry is changing more rapidly.

• This link is to a discussion of the penetration of medical home in the United States: Penetration of PC-MH as of September 30, 2014.  There are appropriately 661,400 physicians practicing in the USA.   With 246,090 in primary care and 45,107 working in PC-MH practices, 18.33% of primary care physicians are participating in Patient-Centered Medical Homes.
• The Summit is one of the principle conferences for the promotion of the PC-MH practice method. 

SETMA;’s team will address the following topics in the pre-conference:

• SETMA’s Medical Home Journey €“ the Continuing Pursuit of Excellence. 
• Unique Billing for PCMH €“ Transitions of Care/HCC Risk Management Audits for PC-MH
• PC-MH Community Council €“ The Staff, Value and Purpose of a Community Council for PC-MH
• Data Informatics €“ The Power of Informatics and the Philosophy of Quality Metrics in PCMH
• PCMH Story Telling €“ Value and Imperative
• PCMH Medical Student and Residency Externship
• Patient-Centered Conversation €“ Patient Activity, Engagement and Shared Decision Making €“ Transforming a Patient Encounter into a real PCMH Visit.
• Wrap up

In the Closing Plenary Session of the main conference, SETMA’s CEO will be addressing:  "Recognition/Accreditation is good but Culture is King.”

Those attending the Summit and who are working in a PC-MH practice can compare their performance to SETMA’s.  Those who have not begun this pilgrimage can learn why they should and how they can proceed.  In such a conference, we can address the challenge Abraham Lincoln gave in his 1856 House Divided Speech, when he said:  “If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it.”  This is what is needed in healthcare today.  Others can learn how to answer the questions posed by Lincoln of:  “where are we”, where are we headed, “what should we do,” and “how should we do it.”

Employers, health plan administrators, patient advocate representatives, advocates for vulnerable populations, state, local and federal government agencies and others can learn what the most innovative and creative changes taking place in healthcare delivery  are.

SETMA is currently working with the American Board of Family Medicine and with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on research projects.  We have recently been invited to consult with The Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston and with the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation Centers to help improve healthcare delivery.  The Innovation Centered said:  “Given your expertise and experience, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss with you potential innovations in EHRs for advanced primary care. We are particularly interested in your perspective on the field’s interest in and readiness for innovations.”

SETMA is delighted to welcome new physicians now and more physicians in the next twelve to eighteen months.  That will expand the ability of SETMA to patient-centered services to more patients and to continue to influence healthcare in Southeast Texas for good.