MS Family Doctors Examine the Impact of Personalized Care

At a Jackson summit, Mississippi Health care workers discuss a new concept called Patient Centered Medical Home

A new concept in medical care could soon be making its way into your doctor’s office. MPB's Lawayne Childrey examines Patient Centered Medical Homes.

Patient Centered Medical Homes are not physical offices with street addresses. Instead they are personal lines of communication with a patients primary care physician that relies heavily on today's technology. Dr Jason Dees is with the New Albany medical Group.

“You are out playing basketball at lunch and you twist your ankle and then you’ve gotta go pick your kids up. So while you’re waiting for your kids to get in the car you shoot an email to your doctor and says hey I was playing basketball and twisted my ankle. He emails you back 2 or 3 questions and you respond back. And he says hey got an opening right now come on.”

The information texted is then stored in a data base that can be shared with doctors in other areas. Michael O'Dell. President of the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians says this type of technology and coordinated care can be especially important to a state like Mississippi in its fight against chronic diseases like diabetes.

“Diabetes is actually not one disease. It involves multiple things. It involves the potential for heart disease. It involves diet, it involves a number of things beyond just that label of diabetes. Unless we’re actually able to bring to the patient all that coordinated care that they deserve they’re lacking because of a shortfall in one of the elements of care that we’d like to be delivered to them.”

While Harold Ingram, CEO of a Performax Medical Billing Company in Jackson says personalized patient care is needed he also says more information is needed.

“I think we have some issues of malpractice, I think we have some issues of physician availability. But it sounds like an interesting concept that might really work and we certainly need it here in Mississippi.”

The Patient Centered medical Home Concept is part of many health care reform bills making their way through Washington. For MPB News, I'm Lawayne Childrey.