(American College of Physicians: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) -- More than a dozen U.S. specialty health-care organizations joined the four major primary care physicians’ professional groups to endorse the seven-point Joint Principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH).

The PCMH offers the benefits of a personal physician with a whole-person orientation who accepts overall responsibility for the care of the patient and leads a team that provides enhanced access to care, improved coordinated and integrated care, and increased efforts to ensure safety and quality.

The Joint Principles describe the characteristics of a practice-based care model for providing comprehensive primary care for children, youth, and adults in a health-care setting. The PCMH facilitates partnerships between individual patients and their personal physicians and—when appropriate—the patient’s family.

Promoting the establishment of the Joint Principles is the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC). In addition to physicians and medical students, PCPCC’s membership consists of national employers and their associations, health-care quality advocacy groups, academic centers, and consumer advocacy groups in supporting the PCMH.

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