Institute of Medicine: The Patient-Centered Medical Home: A Path Toward Health Equity?

This discussion paper from participants in the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and the Elimination of Health Disparities raises the question of whether the patient-centered medical home model adequately addresses the social determinants of health that will drive long-term improvements in population and community health.  The authors argue that while reliance solely on improvements in health care delivery may result in short-term improvements in health status, longer-term and sustained population-level improvements in health status require medical providers, whether they are or not structured as patient-centered medical homes, to be more proactive in working with patients, families, and communities to address those social determinants.  The authors suggest opportunities for patient-centered medical homes to explicitly form partnerships and linkages with other service providers working on those broader issues of housing, education, employment, violence, and social opportunity.