Kennedy Community Health Center Earns National Recognition

The National Committee for Quality Assurance announces that the Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center’s medical site in Framingham has received National Committee for Quality Assurance Patient-Centered Medical Home Recognition (Level II status) for using evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long‐term, participative relationships.

The Health Center’s flagship medical facility in Worcester achieved National Committee for Quality Assurance PCMH Level III status earlier this year.

The National Committee for Quality AssurancePatient-Centered Medical Home is a model of primary care that combines teamwork and information technology to improve care, improve patients’ experience of care and reduce costs. Medical homes foster ongoing partnerships between patients and their personal clinicians, instead of approaching care as the sum of episodic office visits. Each patient’s care is overseen by clinician-led care teams that coordinate treatment across the health care system. Research shows that medical homes can lead to higher quality and lower costs, and can improve patient and provider reported experiences of care.

“NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home Recognition raises the bar in defining high-quality care by emphasizing access, health information technology and coordinated care focused on patients,” said National Committee for Quality Assurance President Margaret E. O’Kane, in a written statement. “Recognition shows that Kennedy CHC has the tools, systems and resources to provide its patients with the right care, at the right time.”

To earn recognition, which is valid for three years, Kennedy Community Health Center demonstrated the ability to meet the program’s key elements, embodying characteristics of the medical home.

National Committee for Quality Assurance standards aligned with the joint principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home established with the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Osteopathic Association.