title: The Group Health medical home at year two: cost savings, higher patient satisfaction, and less burnout for providers.
abstract: As the patient-centered medical home model emerges as a key vehicle to improve the quality of health care and to control costs, the experience of Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative with its medical home pilot takes on added importance. This paper examines the effects of the medical home prototype on patients' experiences, quality, burnout of clinicians, and total costs at twenty-one to twenty-four months after implementation. The results show improvements in patients' experiences, quality, and clinician burnout through two years. Compared to other Group Health clinics, patients in the medical home experienced 29 percent fewer emergency visits and 6 percent fewer hospitalizations. We estimate total savings of $10.3 per patient per month twenty-one months into the pilot. We offer an operational blueprint and policy recommendations for adoption in other health care settings.
authors.affiliation: Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA. reid.rj@ghc.org
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Coleman
authors.forename: Eric A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Fishman
authors.forename: Clarissa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Michael P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Soman
authors.forename: Claire E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Trescott
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Erikson
authors.forename: Eric B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Larson
mesh_terms: D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D017046:Cost Savings / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D017146:Models, Organizational; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014861:Washington