Practice Transformation Institute to Host Michigan’s First Comprehensive Symposium
on the Patient-Centered Medical Home
Patient-Centered Medical Home: Small Steps, Big Rewards Set for September 10th at Oakland University

Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero 248.651.7536; cell 586.817.8414; barbara@eafocus.com 

Troy, Mich.--- August 21, 2008 ---The Practice Transformation Institute (PTI), a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Troy that provides transformative consulting and training, education and development services to medical, health and wellness organizations and individuals, with an emphasis on primary care practices, is hosting Michigan’s first comprehensive symposium on the Patient–Centered Medical Home on September 10th at Oakland University.

The Patient-Centered Medical Home is a national health care movement that establishes the personal care physician’s office as the patient’s medical home, with the personal physician coordinating all of a patient’s medical care to improve patient health and decrease costs. The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is a concept, not a place, that puts the focus back on the patient and treats the whole person. The PCMH is gaining support among progressive thinkers in medical and employer communities throughout the country, and is already being adopted in various stages in Illinois, California, Colorado, North Carolina, Massachusetts and Minnesota.

The September symposium, entitled, Patient-Centered Medical Home: Small Steps, Big Rewards, will be led by the nation’s leading innovators and experts on the PCMH and primary care, according to Practice Transformation Institute Founding Principal, Ewa Matuszewski.

“My increasing involvement with the Patient Centered Medical Home at the national level helped me establish working relationships with the country’s leading PCMH advocates and experts,” explains Ms. Matuszewski. “It also increased the sense of urgency that Michigan needs to become fully engaged with the PCMH process to improve the health care delivery and outcomes of primary care and chronic care and be aggressive in reducing their associated costs. This symposium is a huge leap forward to reaching that goal and my PCMH colleagues were quick to sign on for the symposium and serve as speakers and educators.”

The symposium speakers are an elite group of influential regional and national leaders in the patient-centered medical home and include Paul Grundy M.D., MPH, Medical Director for IBM International and Chairman of the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC), Mike Hindmarsh MS, Principal, Hindsight Consulting and Kellogg Foundation Resident Consultant, Tsveti Markova, M.D, an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences at Wayne State University, serving as the Residency Program Director, Director of Clinical Operations at University Family Physicians-Detroit, and Interim Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs, and Herbert Smitherman M.D., author of Taking Care of the Uninsured: A Path to Reform.

The Practice Transformation Institute is hosting the symposium in cooperation with Oakland University, Wayne State University’s Physician Group Independent Health Partners, and other physician organizations. It will focus not only on the Patient -Centered Medical Home but the practice transformation required to fully realize the benefits of PCMH. The event is geared to physicians, health plan administrators, health care executives, elected officials, medical school and university administrators, and progressive healthcare advocates. Topics will include the Chronic Care Model of Medicine and PCMH, PCMH implementation, open access within the PCMH, self management programs, quality improvement and process, teamwork, and the business case for PCMH.

Symposium specifics:

Title: Patient-Centered Medical Home: Small Steps, Big Rewards
Date: Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Time: Check-in begins at 7:30am with the symposium starting promptly at 8:30am running to 4:00pm
Location: Oakland University; Oakland Center; Rochester, Michigan
To register: Go to the Register tab at www.transformcoach.org; 248-519-2337
Cost: $50 includes continental breakfast during check-in plus lunch and all learning materials

More on PCMH

The ultimate goal of the PCMH is to improve patient health through an efficient, patient-centered health care delivery system. At its core, PCMH is founded on the patient/physician relationship and seeks to retool the primary care physician’s office to ultimately renovate our health care system for better health outcomes, increased viability and long term cost savings and cost effectiveness.

About PTI

The Practice Transformation Institute is Michigan’s leading provider of experiential learning programs for the Patient-Centered Medical Home and other primary care transformation initiatives. To learn more, please visit www.transformcoach.org.

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