Patient-centered medical homes: standards for approval-part 2: part 2 of 3.

Part 1 of this series discussed the key aspects and health care benefits of patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs). Part 2 outlines the approval process employed by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) to evaluate, grade, and recognize PCMHs. Primary care practice sites must develop an understanding of the various graded categories to enable them to focus attention on the critical components of a successful PCMH. Overall, the goals of NCQA's recognition standards are to enhance patient access and continuity to health care services, manage patient populations, plan care, provide each patient with support for self-care, track and coordinate patient care, and measure performance of both the clinicians and practice-site as a whole. In short, the standards provide a solid basis for primary care practice sites to evolve into a PCMH model.