Kerry L. Hydash, MPA
Family HealthCare Network President & CEO
Beginning as a pilot project during the 1960’s, Community Health Centers like Family HealthCare Network (FHCN) have evolved over the last 50 years to become the largest and most successful primary care system in the country. Much of this growth can be attributed to Community Health Center’s unique approach to health care in providing accessible, affordable, and comprehensive services from a team of caring professionals.
Last month, FHCN’s coordinated care model received national recognition as our organization was reaffirmed as a level 3 Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH). The highest level granted by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), the level 3 PCMH designation recognizes FHCN’s use of evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long-term, participative relationships with our patients.
In July 2012, FHCN became the first Community Health Center in California to receive the level 3 recognition from the NCQA. To maintain this recognition, which is valid for three years, FHCN demonstrated the ability to meet the program’s key elements, embodying characteristics of the medical home.
As a medical home, FHCN fosters ongoing partnerships between our patients and our clinicians, instead of approaching care as the sum of episodic office visits. Through FHCN’s PCMH model, patients have access to a wide range of services, including primary care, obstetrics, pediatrics, pharmacy, dentistry, and more. From one specialty to another, clinician-led care teams coordinate treatment across the health care system and oversee each patient’s individual care plan.
Research shows that medical homes like FHCN can lead to higher quality and lower costs, and can improve patient and provider reported experiences of care. The effectiveness of the PCMH model has proven effective and valuable for our local community as 1 in 3 patients in Tulare and Kings County call FHCN their health home.
When people have consistent access to care, they use it and stay healthier. Measured against the national average, FHCN patients continue to exceed standards for clinical outcome measures including child and adult weight screening and counseling, tobacco assessment and cessation intervention, and the reduction of low and very low birth weights.
Our patients not only get the care they need under one roof, but they are treated as partners in their care, with dignity and respect.
