The Association of Patient-centered Medical Home Designation with Quality of Care of HRSA-funded Health Centers

Objectives: (1) To evaluate the relationship between Patient-centered Medical Home (PCMH) recognition and quality of clinical care among health centers, and (2) to determine whether the duration of recognition is positively associated with cumulative quality improvement over time. Methods: Data came from the 2012 to 2015 Uniform Data System, health centers' PCMH recognition status, and the Area Resource File. Health center was the unit of observation. The outcome variables included 11 measures of clinical quality. We pooled all years of data and modeled longitudinal data with generalized estimating equations to examine the degree of improvement in health care quality in health centers with and without PCMH recognition over the years 2012-2015. Results: Health centers with PCMH recognition generally performed better on clinical quality measures than health centers that did not have PCMH recognition for all years studied. After accounting for health center and county-level potential confounders, health centers with longer periods of PCMH recognition were more likely to have improved their clinical quality on 9 of 11 measures, than health centers with fewer years of PCMH recognition. Conclusions: Health centers' length of time with PCMH recognition was positively associated with additive quality improvement. Adoption of the PCMH model of care may serve as a strategy to enhance quality of primary care services.