health home
an evolving concept, originating in 1967 with the idea of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) of archiving each child’s medical records in a central (“home”) location, intended to provide patients of all ages with access to continuous, comprehensive, family-centered, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally effective care. The AAP together with the American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Physicians, and American Osteopathic Association jointly endorsed the following principles of this medical approach: that (a) each patient have a personal physician; (b) the personal physician direct a team of practitioners, who collectively are responsible for providing the patient’s ongoing medical and mental health care (i.e., acute, chronic, and preventative services); (c) the personal physician take a whole-person approach to the patient’s care, either personally treating the patient or arranging for care from other
qualified professionals; and (d) the patient’s physical and mental health care be coordinated or integrated across the health care system and the patient’s community, such that care is received where and when the patient wants it and in an appropriate manner (e.g., in the patient’s preferred language, in a culturally relevant way). Ideally, benefits of this approach are higher quality care, improved safety, enhanced access to care (e.g., through expanded hours, open scheduling, and new methods of communication between the patient and the medical and mental health teams), reduced costs in service delivery, and better reimbursement for services provided. Also called medical home; patient-centered medical home.