Mountain View, CA - August 12, 2013 - El Camino Hospital today announced that its Senior Health Center has received recognition from the National Committee for Quality Assurance's Patient-Centered Medical Home 2011 (NCQA PCMH) program for using evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long-term relationships between patients and providers, while improving outcomes and reducing costs. El Camino Hospital's Senior Health Center is one of the first of its kind in Northern California and a vital community resource providing a comprehensive continuum of care from wellness and prevention to post-hospital managed care.
"Our Senior Health offering has raised the bar in delivering quality care by taking an innovative and collaborative approach to meeting the complex physical, mental and social needs of the growing aging population in our area," said Tomi Ryba, president and chief executive officer of El Camino Hospital. "Our approach is to combine multidisciplinary care to each patient and personalize their care based on their clinical and emotional needs."
To receive the NCQA PCMH recognition, which is valid for three years, the Senior Health Center demonstrated the ability to meet the program's key standards, which align with the joint principles of the patient-centered medical home established with the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Osteopathic Association. The Senior Health Center met key program components in the following areas:
- Written standards for patient access and continuity of care
- Use of patient feedback materials
- Appropriate use of charting tools to track patients and organize clinical information
- Responsive care management techniques with an emphasis on preventative care for individual patients and for the entire patient population
- Adaptation to patients' cultural and linguistic needs
- Use of information technology for prescriptions, tests and referral tracking and coordination with other health care providers
- Use of evidence-based guidelines to treat chronic conditions
- Measurement and reporting of clinical and service performance
About NCQA
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA's Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information for consumers, purchasers, health care providers and researchers.
About El Camino Hospital
El Camino Hospital is an acute-care, 443-bed, nonprofit and locally governed organization with campuses in Mountain View and Los Gatos, Calif. In addition to state-of-the-art emergency departments, key medical specialties include neuroscience, heart and vascular, cancer care, urology, orthopedic and spine, genomic medicine, and the only Women's Hospital in Northern California. The hospital is recognized as a national leader in the use of health information technology and wireless communications, and has been awarded the Gold Seal of Approval from The Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center as well as back-to-back ANCC Magnet Recognitions for Nursing Care.