BHB Introduces Patient-Centred Medical Home
The Bermuda Hospitals Board said they have “invested in a pilot project to help combat the impact of chronic disease including cost.”
The Patient-Centred Medical Home [PCMH] programme is an outpatient referral service for individuals with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, who are not currently seeing a GP and who are under- or uninsured.
“The goal is to keep this at-risk group as healthy as possible and help them manage their chronic diseases,” said BHB CEO Venetta Symonds.
“This will help reduce emergency department visits, hospitalisations and complications, such as amputation and dialysis, which impact quality of life and are costly to the healthcare system,” she added.
Patients require a medical referral to receive the service. Medical Director of the Programme Dr Stanley James said these referrals will likely come from GPs, the Emergency Department and the hospitalist service.
The pilot programme began on Monday 7 November. It will run for a year, at which time it will be assessed and a decision made on modifications or continuation.
To date, there are 28 patients registered with the service.
“These patients have complex chronic health conditions and the length of each of their visits correlates to the complexity of their medical and social needs,” said Dr James.
“The complex nature of these patients is served by the cooperation of various healthcare providers—pharmacists, dedicated medical social workers, consultants, along with laboratory and diagnostic facilities that are readily available onsite.
“This approach increases these patients’ adherence to their treatment regimen and also decreases the likelihood that they will fall between the cracks.
“With regularly scheduled follow-up calls and return-to-clinic visits, we are better able to provide reassurance to patients, as well as assess compliance early in their journey towards control of their chronic conditions.”
The Patient-Centred Medical Home is staffed by a team of four: Medical Director Dr Stanley James, Nurse Practitioner Myrian Balitian-Dill, Staff Nurse Cheryl Maronie and Administrator Karen Henry. The service is located on the ground floor of the KEMH General Wing.
Perhaps the BHB can explain this to me? Currently the fracture clinic is situated in the old emergency triage area. The Xray machines (just the sort of thing a fracture clinic might need to use) are located in the new wing.
Every Tuesday there is a procession of people with severe injuries being wheeled, on crutches or hobbling over to the xray AND BACK.
Who was the genius who came up with that brilliant arrangement?
This sounds like a proactive way to manage some of our long standing chronic health issues in Bermuda.
How is a chronic health issue defined under this programme and what qualifies?
Will this pilot include direct services for our significant population addicted to alcohol and drugs and those impacted by mental health issues?
So basically this is the return of the medical clinic that Dr Brown got rid of. Since then this has left huge gaps in access to medical care for the most vulnerable of our population . Well done BHB for bringing back this much needed service .