An introduction to the Patient-Centered Medical Home

The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is a redesign of office practice that maintains the core values of traditional family medicine, creates health care teams that track and improve patient care, improves access, satisfaction, and patient centeredness, and is supported by reformed reimbursement. The Affordable Care Act has acknowledged the role of the PCMH and contains many components that support the study and expansion of the model. This first offering in a series of articles on the PCMH provides an introduction to the principles of the PCMH, its place in national delivery demonstration projects and accountable care organizations, and a description of some of the changes practices can begin to make in the transition to a medical home.