OGDENSBURG – Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center has announced that the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) today announced that Dr. Robert Cruikshank, a physician at the Medical Center's Canton Health Center, and Dr. Manasvi Jaitly, a physician at the Medical Center's Agarwal Renal Center, have received Recognition from the Physician Practice Connections-Patient-Centered Medical Home (PPC-PCMH) program for using evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long-term participative relationships.

The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is a promising model of healthcare delivery that aims to improve the quality and efficiency of care. PPC-PCMH identifies practices that promote partnerships between individual patients and their personal clinicians, instead of treating patient care as the sum of several episodic office visits.

Each patient's care is tended by clinician-led care teams, who provide for all the patient's health care needs and coordinate treatments across the healthcare system.

Medical home clinicians demonstrate the benchmarks of patient-centered care, including open scheduling, expanded hours and appropriate use of proven health information systems.

Early evaluations of the PPC-PCMH have shown promising results in improving care quality and lowering costs by increasing access to more efficient, more coordinated care.

By avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations and emergency room visits, these early results are producing savings for payers, purchasers and patients.

"The patient-centered medical home promises to improve health and health care;" said NCQA President Margaret E. O'Kane. "The active, ongoing relationship between a patient and a clinician in medical homes fosters an all-too-rare goal in care: staying healthy and preventing illness in the first place. PPC-PCMH Recognition shows that Dr. Robert Cruikshank and Dr. Manasvi Jaitly have the tools, systems and resources to provide his patients with the right care at the right time."

To receive recognition, which is valid for three years, Dr. Cruikshank and Dr. Jaitly demonstrated the ability to meet the program's key elements embodying characteristics of the medical home.

The standards are aligned 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.

Dr. Cruikshank and Dr. Jaitly met key program components in the following areas:

• Written standards for patient access and enhanced communications

• Appropriate use of charting tools to track patients and organize clinical information

• Responsive care management techniques with an emphasis on preventative care

• Adaptation to patient's cultural and linguistic needs

• Use of information technology for prescriptions and care management

• Use of evidence-based guidelines to treat chronic conditions

• Systematic tracking of referrals and test results

• Measurement and reporting of clinical and service performance

The NCQA, celebrating its 20th anniversary, is a private, non-private organization dedicated to improving healthcare quality.

NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of healthcare organizations.

It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance.

NCQA's Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set is the most widely uses performance measurement tool in health care.

NCQA is committed to providing healthcare quality information for consumers, purchasers, healthcare providers and researchers.

To find primary care medical practices and clinicians affiliated with practice sites that have been recognized by the Physician Practice Connections-Patient Centered Medial Home program visit http://recognition.ncqa.org.