North Carolina Medical Society members Raleigh Pediatric Associates, with offices in North Raleigh and Garner, just received their Level 3 National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) 2011 recognition after working for nearly a year with NCMS’ Director of Practice Improvement Terri Gonzalez.

“The process was long, tedious and exhausting, but Terri got us organized and was good at keeping us on track,” said Nicole Parkerson, MD. “She gave us great suggestions and helped us interpret exactly what they wanted in the documentation.”

Level 3 is the highest level of recognition that NCQA offers. NCQA sets specific standards for primary care practices to use in organizing care around patients, working in teams and coordinating and tracking care over time. Following these standards helps a practice organize into a PCMH that fosters partnership between the doctors, their patients and the patients’ family and others who can help ensure that people get indicated care when they need it. A PCMH practice uses information technology and online patient portals among other methods to accomplish this patient-centered model of care, while positioning the practice to benefit from payment and performance initiatives sponsored by private and public payers.

At Raleigh Pediatrics a team of three physicians along with the office administrator, nursing supervisor and nurse in charge of the IT system formed a team to “divide and conquer” the task of achieving their level 3 recognition, Parkerson said, adding that Gonzalez helped them be creative in their approach, making it fit their particular needs and practice style.

Now that they have this designation, Parkerson and the team are looking forward to what’s ahead.

“It will help us be more competitive in the marketplace,” she said. “And [the process] also helped us be a better practice for our patients.”

If you would like help with attaining PCMH designation, please contact Terri Gonzalez at [email protected] or 919-833-3836, X123

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