How nurse-led practices perceive implementation of the patient-centered medical home

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) promotes the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model as a way to improve healthcare quality, the patient experience, and has identified nurse-led primary care as a mechanism meeting the increasing demand for quality primary care. The purpose of this study was to investigate the implementation of a PCMH model in nurse-led primary care practices and to identify facilitators and barriers to the implementation of this model.

Data were collected through in-depth interviews with providers and staff in nurse-led practices.

These data suggest two categories of processes that facilitate the integration of PCMH in the nurse-led practice setting: patient-oriented facilitators and organizational facilitators. In addition, a number of barriers were identified to implementing the PCMH model. Overall, these practices creatively engaged in the transformation process by structuring themselves as a complex adaptive system and building upon the core principles of nurse-led care.

Since the core principles of nurse-led care map onto many of the same principles of the PCMH model, this study discusses the possibility that nurse-led practices may experience fewer barriers when transitioning into PCMHs.