Safety Net Medical Home Initiative: Assigning and Managing Panels

This implementation guide from the Safety Net Medical Home Initiative describes how patient-centered medical homes can improve the assignment and management of their patient panels.   Effective empanelment shifts a practice from acute responsive care to proactive and planned care for a population of patients.  The guide includes practical tools for assignment, maintenance and adjustments of patient panels but also emphasizes that the practice must facilitate ways for patients to identify with their care teams, and create communications materials which reinforce the patient-team relationship.

The Safety Net Medical Home Initiative is funded by The Commonwealth Fund and eight other funders, with technical assistance from Qualis Health and the MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation at the Group Health Research Institute.   The initiative is working with five regional coordinating centers, which are each supporting the implementation of patient-centered medical homes in over a dozen safety net clinics.

Link to Original Source

Additional resources on this change concept are available from the Safety Net Medical Home Initiative website.