The Internal Medicine Faculty Practice at Saint Barnabas Medical Center has received national recognition from the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s (NCQA) as a Physician Practice Connections® - Patient-Centered Medical Home™ (PPC®-PCMH™). In addition, the four-physician practice achieved Level 3 Recognition, the highest level attainable under the PCMH program.

"Saint Barnabas is honored to be recognized for its commitment to patient-centered care," said Ashish Parikh, M.D., FACP, Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine Faculty Program and Director of the Internal Medicine Faculty Practice. "As a recognized Patient-Centered Medical Home, the physicians associated with our practice develop an ongoing relationship with our patients and provide care coordination which emphasizes prevention and wellness."

A PCMH is a physician office where health care professionals work as a team to provide patients with care that is individually determined to meet their specific needs. Health care team members strive to know their patients, as well as their preferences regarding care. The team also coordinates patient care with other health care professionals. As such, the practice becomes its patients’ "homes" for preventive, chronic, and ambulatory care. Under this approach to health care, patients are important members of the team. They openly communicate with the health care professionals and let the team know when they need more direction and explanation about their medical care.

PCMH standards emphasize the use of systemic, patient-centered, coordinated care that supports access, communication, and patient involvement. Since the first quarter of 2009, the Internal Medicine Faculty Practice at Saint Barnabas has been participating in a project sponsored by the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians (NJAFP) and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey to enhance the care patients receive on an ongoing basis. Part of this project included training and assistance in accumulating and submitting documentation to NCQA that allowed the organization to assess whether the practice was functioning as a medical home and to recognize them for these efforts.

Examples of the NCQA PPC-PCMH standards that The Internal Medicine Faculty Practice at Saint Barnabas had to meet include:

having readily accessible, clinically useful information that enabled the health care team to treat patients comprehensively

maintaining continuous relationships with patients by implementing evidence-based guidelines and applying them to identified needs of individual patients

collaborating with patients and their families to pursue goals for optimal achievable health

seeking to reduce medical errors and improve efficiency.

The Internal Medicine Faculty Practice at Saint Barnabas is a teaching practice affiliated with Saint Barnabas Medical Center, a leading community teaching hospital. Through association with the Medical Center, our patients have access to all the advanced technology, resources, and research activities available at Saint Barnabas. The practice offers comprehensive medical care with an emphasis on prevention and health maintenance for both healthy persons and those with multiple, complex medical problems in a newly renovated, spacious office space. Being an academic teaching practice, each patient is thoroughly evaluated by both a resident and an attending physician, and therapeutic decisions are made utilizing evidence-based medicine. The Practice is conveniently located across the street from Saint Barnabas at 101 Old Short Hills Road, Suite 106, West Orange, N.J. To learn more, please call 973-322-6256.

The NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. Its PPC®-PCMHTM program reflects the input of the American College of Physicians (ACP), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and American Osteopathic Association (AOA) and others in a revision of Physician Practice Connections® to assess whether physician practices are functioning as medical homes. Building on the joint principles developed by the primary care specialty societies, the PPC®-PCMH™ standards emphasize the use of systematic, patient-centered, coordinated care management processes. There are nine PPC® standards, including 10 must pass elements, which can result in one of three levels of recognition.

Physician Practice Connections®- Patient Centered Medical HomeTM (PPC®-PCMHTM) is a registered trademark of the National Committee for Quality Assurance.