On May 3, The Commonwealth Fund released a report on converting safety-net health centers into medical homes.  The report utilizes a survey of safety-net health centers to assess their potential to become medical homes, and examines the opportunities and obstacles safety-net health centers face in making the transformation. 

From the report: Enthusiasm for the patient-centered medical home model is growing, yet ini­tial research is scant, showing that true transformation is challenging and that meaningful improvements in care delivery, efficiency, and health outcomes take time and sustained investment. This brief surveys safety-net health centers to determine their potential to become medical homes. Safety-net health centers that provide vulnerable and low-income populations with comprehensive primary care have unique opportunities for successful transformation, but also face challenges. For example, nearly half of the health centers surveyed do not have a process for scheduling patients with a personal provider or have an existing process that needs improvement; two-thirds do not have a process for same-day scheduling or have a process that needs improvement. Survey data also show that health centers that employed team-based care were more likely to have instituted patient access and communications processes, relative to those without team-based care.

Full report:  Providing Underserved Patients with Medical Homes: Assessing the Readiness of Safety-Net Health Centers (PDF | 1.03 MB)

The Commonwealth Fund.  (2010).  Providing underserved patients with medical homes: assessing the readiness of safety-net health centers.  Coleman, K. and Phillips, K.