title: Using a facilitation model to achieve patient-centered medical home recognition.
abstract: This article describes how a facilitation model that included a partnership between a Community Care of North Carolina network and undergraduates at a regional university supported rural primary care practices in transforming their practices to become National Committee for Quality Assurance-recognized patient-centered medical homes. Health care management and preprofessional undergraduate students worked with 14 rural primary care practices to redesign practice processes and complete the patient-centered medical home application. Twelve of the practices participated in the evaluation of the student contribution. A semistructured interview guide containing questions about practice characteristics, student competencies, and the value of the student's contribution to their practice's achievement of patient-centered medical home recognition was used to interview practice managers or their designee. Analysis included item-descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis of narrative content. All 12 participating practices achieved 2011 National Committee for Quality Assurance patient-centered medical home recognition, with 4 practices achieving level 3, 5 practices achieving level 2, and 3 practices achieving level 1. The facilitation model using partnerships between health care agencies and universities might be an option for enhancing a practice's internal capacity for successful transformation and should be explored further.
authors.affiliation: Author Affiliations: College of Health Sciences, Appalachian State University, Boone (Dr Lane); and Community Care of North Carolina, Raleigh (Dr Watkins), North Carolina.
authors.forename: Sandi J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lane
authors.forename: R W Chip
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Watkins
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D009657:North Carolina; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D019035:Rural Health Services; D013336:Students, Health Occupations / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014495:Universities