Medical homes for diverse underserved populations

The “medical home” was originally defined in the 1960's by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to address the need for an optimal level of health care for children with special health care needs. The AAP has identified seven features that characterize the medical home: care that is accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family-centered, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally effective.

This paper explores the concept of the medical home, particularly as it applies to medically underserved children, and presents several alternative models for providing a medical home to these populations, including mobile medical units, school-based health centers, and telemedicine. The paper demonstrates the potential of these alternative delivery forms to provide a medical-home model of care: care that is available and accessible, continuous and comprehensive, coordinated, family-centered, and culturally effective.