BENNINGTON, Mass. — Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC) and Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) announced that each of its five primary care practices in Vermont—SVMC Deerfield Valley Campus in Wilmington, SVMC Internal Medicine in Bennington, SVMC Northshire Campus in Manchester, SVMC Pediatrics in Bennington, and SVMC Pownal Campus in Pownal—have achieved recognition for providing personalized, effective, and efficient primary care. 

 

The medical practices have been re-designated as Patient Centered Medical Homes by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).

 

"This designation requires an extraordinary commitment to continual improvements in patient care," said Robert Schwartz, MD, SVMC's medical director for Primary Care. "We are proud of our primary care teams for their ability to earn this prestigious recognition year after year."

 

The primary care medical home program identifies practices that promote partnerships between individual patients and their personal clinicians. A team of doctors, nurses, and other allied health providers oversees each patient's care. The team ensures that care for each patient's health needs is coordinated across the health care system.

 

To receive recognition, a practice must demonstrate its ability to meet six key standards of the Patient Centered Medical Home model, which was developed by the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Osteopathic Association. The areas include access to care, using tools to identify patients and their information; planning and managing patient care; providing self-care tools; tracking and coordinating care; and a system for measuring and improving performance. Each standard has several subsections. Practices must resubmit for consideration every year.

 

"We are grateful to the NCQA for setting such rigorous standards," said Director of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Putnam Medical Group Primary Care Services Tina Gallant. "Measuring our care against their strenuous framework is an assurance to us and to our patients that we are providing the very best care we can."

 

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 is committed to providing health care quality information for consumers, purchasers, health care providers, and researchers.