Shared principles for health care homes

Participants in the US Study Tour worked together this week with US colleagues to identify shared principles which were important in guiding successful implementation of health care homes (or medical homes in US terminology).

Our group challenged US colleagues to consider a holistic view of health and wellbeing as a starting point. We described the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander view of health and wellbeing, including physical, emotional, spiritual, social and cultural attributes, centred on community, and proposed that this should be the first of a set of shared principles.

Other principles shared within our group and amongst participants at the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative conference were:

*  a patient, family and carer-centred approach

*  continuous collaborative relationships in which trust is a key attribute for success

*  comprehensive, team-based care, which includes acute, chronic, preventive and social care

*  shared decision-making, patient activation and engagement

*  coordinated care

*  accessible, affordable care

*  high value, evidence-based, safe and quality care

Establishing shared principles for health care homes is an articulation of the values that underpin this health reform. Participants in the US Study Tour will lead a workshop on this topic, with a view to developing shared principles for health care homes in Australia, at a pre-conference workshop at the forthcoming National Primary Health Conference in Melbourne on 23 November 2016.  For more information on how you can join the workshop, see: https://phaa.eventsair.com/QuickEventWebsitePortal/nphcc2016/eis