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Dr. Ivonne Draughon sent in the following information to share.
Carolina Partners in Mental HealthCare, PLLC, is proud to announce the launch of a one-year pilot quality initiative designed to improve patient behavioral and physical health, and improve the cost effectiveness of patient care through the management of both psychiatric disorders with one of the following co-morbidities; Diabetes, Hyperlipidemia, Hypertension, Obesity and/or Osteoarthritis.
Inspired by the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model, Carolina Partners plans to implement a “Patient Centered Specialty Medical Home” (PCSMH) in January of 2016 in the Wake Forest branch as part of their new non-profit organization, Carolina Partners Foundation.
The Patient Centered Specialty Medical Home Wake Forest has been proposed by Dr. Ivonne Draughon, DNP NP-C as a practical solution to the increased primary care needs patients encounter and holds promise to deliver better chronic care.
Mental Health Diabetes and Hypertension lend themselves well to the principles of Carolina Partners given its robust evidence-based practice. Although the concept of a medical home remains new the basic elements are well described by the Joint Principles of the American Academy of Family Medicine American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.
“After many years of development in patient-centered care, we are excited to be moving forward with the PCSMH”, said Dr. Mary Hartsell, DNP, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC and Director of Quality Management at Carolina Partners. “This pilot will ultimately allow us to offer quality care to North Carolina’s under-insured population, who are in particular need of quality behavioral and chronic disease management. We are in a key position to assist with chronic disease case management since we typically follow individuals closely by seeing them as often as weekly, establishing deeper trusting relationships with both the individuals and their families, and developing a keen awareness of the individual’s mind- body-spirit connections in relationship to their disease processes.”
Carolina Partners is currently developing and implementing the prototype for a medical home and hopes to be accredited by the NCQA as we implement the model in both Carolina Partners for- profit practices and through the Carolina Partners Foundation. “We fully expect the impact of this program to be significant for North Carolina communities.”