Innovative Aspects of the Mount Pleasant Patient Centered Medical Home 

11.30.2010  PRESENTER: Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH, Associate Physician and Instructor in Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital MODERATOR: Michael Gustafson, MD, MBA, Senior Vice President for Clinical Excellence, BWH / Faulkner Hospital

Forum Summary

The current healthcare system is unsustainable because of rising costs and care fragmentation.  Strong primary care systems improve patient satisfaction and lower costs, but unfortunately, primary care providers are in short supply.  As the population ages, the need for primary care services will increase.  To meet this demand, new models of healthcare delivery, such as the patient-centered medical home, are being developed.  A patient-centered medical home is a team of providers who emphasize coordinated care and proactive measures to ensure population health.
The South Huntington Patient-Centered Medical Home is a new facility sponsored by Brigham and Women’s Hospital that is being built on the grounds of the Mount Pleasant Home in Boston, MA. Set to open in 2011, the medical home will be open to all patients and payers.  The staff will be grouped into four teams, each with an attending doctor, resident, LPN, social worker, and medical assistants.  A nutritionist, pharmacist, and nurses will interact with all four teams.  The medical home will be a learning laboratory, and the multidisciplinary teams have been designed to improve the coordination of care and to promote patient engagement. 

Integrating new technology into the medical home workflow is an important component of the project.  One example of a device that the medical home will use is a pillbox capable of reminding patients to take medications.  The pillbox is made by the Newton-based company MedMinder and can be programmed to call patients’ cell phones, if necessary.  Another new device potentially to be used at the medical home is a sensor that attaches to a mattress and is capable of monitoring a patient’s heart rate and respiratory rate.  Made by EarlySense, this device would hopefully allow for outpatient monitoring of people with disorders such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Goals of the South Huntington Patient-Centered Medical Home are to improve the primary care experience for patients, to quantify the effect of proactive care on healthcare expenditures, and to build interest in primary care as a career for medical professionals.  Challenges will include convincing patients and payers to support the new model.

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