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2015 | Doing Business in Connecticut 51 SPONSORED REPORT 2015 | Doing Business in Connecticut 23 managing their own care as fully informed partners in the health system. In PCMH, each patient has a close relationship with his/her primary care physician (PCP) who is accountable for that patient's care and coordinates health services from other providers. The PCP keeps track of the patient's health, encourages more open communication and advises on virtually all health decisions. The PCP also creates a care plan for the patient that incorporates preventative and wellness services – and ensures it's followed. With PCMH, the patient is more likely to seek the right care, in the right place at the right time and is less likely to rely on emergency room visits or to leave conditions untreated. Ultimately, the system improves health outcomes while reducing costs to the patient and providers. More PCPs, Stat! The success of the PCMH model relies heavily on a patient's relationship with his/her PCP. Therefore, a healthy supply of well-qualified primary care physicians is needed. Unfortunately, a nationwide shortage of PCPs has created a sizable obstacle in achieving patient-centered care models. With foresight, ECHN began addressing this PCP shortage several years ago. In 2011, ECHN established an educational partnership with the University of New England's College of Osteopathic Medicine (UNECOM) – an institution ranked in the top five of the 147 medical schools in the nation for primary care training. This unique relationship brings medical students to Manchester Memorial and Rockville General Hospitals for a year of clinical and academic training. ECHN also launched a Family Medicine Residency Program to train primary care Nationwide, many hospitals and healthcare systems continue to struggle to adapt to patient-centered care, hiring countless consultants, seeking new partnerships and overhauling existing systems. ECHN, however, has proven itself well-poised for the new direction as it has already been traveling down the road toward reform. According to Richard Orris, DO, a primary care physician in the ECHN network; "ECHN is actually ahead of the curve when it comes to developing procedures and an infrastructure for successful patient-centered care. In fact, patient-centered care isn't really a new concept to us. We put it into practice long before the Affordable Care Act." Patient-Centered Medical Home The model at work at ECHN is called the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) – not physically a place, but a care delivery system that supports patients in some of the boldest steps in patient-centered care are being taken east of the river. SPONSORED REPORT