October 14 Deadline for Public Comment on URAC Patient Centered Health Care Home Program

News provided by

Sep 30, 2010, 04:36 ET

Public Input Sought at http://www.urac.org/publiccomment/

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- URAC's call for public comment on the second set of toolkits for its new Patient Centered Health Care Home (PCHCH) Program closes on October 14, 2010. The program, comprised of an integrated series of three educational toolkits, will help health care practices follow a step-wise process in their journey to becoming a PCHCH.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100422/URACLOGO)

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100422/URACLOGO)

This call for comment focuses on the second and third PCHCH Toolkits: the Patient Survey and Performance Measures Toolkits, and are available for review and comment at http://www.urac.org/publiccomment/.

The PCHCH Program's three toolkits are designed to complement each other, and can be used as stand-alone tools, or in any combination called for by practices and by sponsoring health care organizations such as health plans, insurers, health agencies or pilot programs. The two toolkits now open for comment include:

Patient Survey Toolkit – This toolkit is designed to provide health care practices with patient, family and personal caregiver feedback on their effectiveness in providing a high level of patient centered care and customer satisfaction to be used in quality improvement activities, as well as for public reporting and marketing programs. Over time this toolkit will expand to include surveys evaluating patient reported outcomes, practice care team satisfaction, and other areas of interest to the PCHCH.
Performance Measures Toolkit – This toolkit is designed to provide practices with a set of selectable measures which would generate data on care processes and clinical outcomes to facilitate continuous internal practice quality improvement, public reporting, and meeting incentive payment program requirements.

The final PCHCH program, including all three toolkits, is expected to be reviewed by the URAC Board of Directors in December 2010 and launched in 2011.

About URAC

URAC, an independent, nonprofit organization, is well-known as a leader in promoting health care quality through its accreditation, education and measurement programs. URAC offers a wide range of quality benchmarking programs and services that keep pace with the rapid changes in the health care system, and provide a symbol of excellence for organizations to validate their commitment to quality and accountability. Through its broad-based governance structure and an inclusive standards development process, URAC ensures that all stakeholders are represented in establishing meaningful quality measures for the entire health care industry. For more information, visit www.urac.org.

SOURCE URAC