Advancing the medical home concept

Dallas County, Texas, is the site of one of the largest urban application of the community-oriented primary care (COPC) models in the United States. Parkland Health & Hospital System's Community Oriented Primary Care System (COPC) is designed to not only provide primary care but to be the medical home for the patients it serves: the medically indigent and jail population of Dallas County. With the implementation of the electronic medical record and the integration with a quaternary care hospital and health plan, Parkland is in the process of developing patient and population management tools that are innovative efforts to manage the care of the patients, improve quality and reduce costs, as well as improve the health of the communities it serves. The PHHS System and the COPC Health Centers are designed to be a comprehensive medical home with the ability to link patients with needed community health services. The presentation will describe the evolution of the COPC system, the implementation process of the electronic medical record system and the quality and costs outcomes to date.