Final answer:
In the PCMH model of care, a medical assistant should identify patient-centered care, comprehensive care, coordinated care, and accessible care. Policies must address cost transparency, quality of life, and privacy of health records.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the patient centered medical home (PCMH) model of care, a medical assistant should identify several key features that are foundational to this approach:
- Patient-centered care: This ensures that care is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values, and that patient values guide all clinical decisions.
- Comprehensive care: The PCMH model is structured to meet the majority of each patient's physical and mental health care needs, including prevention and wellness, acute care, and chronic care.
- Coordinated care: Coordination across all elements of the complex health care system (e.g. subspecialty care, hospitals, home health care, and community services) is vital in a PCMH.
- Accessible care: PCMH aims to reduce waiting times for appointments, enhance access to care through open scheduling, and improve communication through innovative methods such as health IT.
When considering the balance between the costs of treatments and diagnoses, patient quality of life, and risks to individual privacy with regards to health records, it is important to ask:
- How do we ensure the costs associated with health care are transparent and justifiable?
- What measures are taken to optimize patient quality of life in treatment plans?
- How are privacy and confidentiality maintained in the handling and storage of health records?