Content for this blog post was provided by Susan Maxsween, Director of RMS Healthcare – Practice Transformation, and her team – Karen Joncas, Healthcare Transformation Coordinator, and Al Tripodi, Healthcare Administrative Assistant.

This blog post is the final part of a three-part series on the Bunker Blog, which provides answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the NCQA PCMH™ Recognition Process. Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS) is a healthcare consultant that works with practices, physician organizations or hospital owned/managed physician practices to complete the NCQA PCMH™ Recognition journey. If you’d like to view other FAQs from this series click here for Part 1 and click here for Part 2.

5. Does RMS Healthcare have expertise and experience in PCMH transformation using NCQA 2008 PCMH Standards? How about 2011 Standards?

RMS Healthcare has assisted 75 practices across the country to become PCMH Recognized under the 2008 standards. We developed Guiding Patient Care Policies that met the 2008 requirements that many practices applied and adapted to their practices as well as tracking and reporting tools specific to standard 1A and 1B (Access and Communication) and standard 6A and 7A (Test Tracking and Referral Tracking). All of our clients have achieved recognition at the highest attainable level that was expected at the time of submission. It is our knowledge, expertise, experience and commitment to quality improvement that has facilitated this success among all of our clients. Further, many of our clients have continued their relationship with RMS Healthcare to assist them to achieve a higher level of recognition, provide training and development regarding PCMH transformation and to assist them with their journey to achieve continued recognition under the 2011 standards.

We are currently in the process of assisting a practice to achieve recognition under the 2011 standards. Our leadership has attended the NCQA 2011 PCMH Standards training and regularly refers to 2011 standards for practices that are planning to begin their 2011 PCMH recognition journey in third quarter 2013. We have also developed Guiding Patient Care Policies for practices to customize applying the 2011 standard criteria as well as tracking and reporting logs, which meet the reporting requirements under the newer standards.

6. How many on-site days/visits will RMS Healthcare make to my practice, physician organization or hospital owned/managed physician practice?

Our goal will be to use on-site days required in a most efficient way. We recognize that the primary focus of you and your team is to serve your patients.  RMS Healthcare will reserve five days on-site for training and assisting your team in compiling data for submission; however, if that is not needed, we will not use the full five days. RMS has proven experience in working with clients remotely in an effort to make our process efficient and financially responsible to and for our clients. A variety of tools may be used to facilitate this such as conference calls, e-mails, webinars and remote (virtual) access to your EMR to train and demonstrate compliance with standards. The on-site work will be planned for about halfway through the project.

7. Will off-site assistance (phone calls, emails, etc.) from RMS Healthcare be unlimited in the NCQA PCMH™ Recognition Process journey?

Off-site assistance in the form of phone calls and e-mails is unlimited within the scope of the engagement. One member of the RMS Healthcare team will be available, if not immediately, then within the same business day to answer any questions or concerns related to the project. In an effort to be certain, we are always meeting the needs of our clients, we ask our clients at the completion of our projects to complete a survey. Our team received a 9.7/10 for communication and a 9.5/10 for helpfulness throughout the project. Added qualitative comments included words to describe the RMS Healthcare team such as “An extremely knowledgeable team,” and “Fantastic- Service with a smile, even via phone or computer!”

If you have any additional questions regarding responses to our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding the PCMH™ Recognition Process, please do not hesitate to contact Susan Maxsween, Director of RMS Healthcare – Practice Transformation, at SusanM@RMSresults.com or by calling (315) 635-9802.