Healthy Connections Clinics Earn PCMH Recognition

NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home™ standards emphasize enhanced care through patient-clinician partnership

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) announced that Healthy Connections, Inc., clinics in Mena, Hot Springs, Malvern, Arkadelphia, Mount Ida, and De Queen have received NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Recognition for using evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long‐term, participative relationships.

The NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home is a model of primary care that combines teamwork and information technology to improve care, improve patients’ experience of care and reduce costs. Medical homes foster ongoing partnerships between patients and their personal clinicians, instead of approaching care as the sum of episodic office visits. Each patient’s care is overseen by clinician-led care teams that coordinate treatment across the health care system. Research shows that medical homes can lead to higher quality and lower costs, and can improve patient and provider reported experiences of care.

The Healthy Connections Montgomery County Community Clinic in Mount Ida (534 Luzerne St.) previously earned this recognition. Other clinics now recognized include:

• Mena, 136 Health Park Lane
• Ouachita River Health Center, Mena (Acorn School campus), 139 School Lane
• Hot Springs Central, 3604 Central Avenue
• Hot Springs Chippewa, 1723 Malvern Avenue
• Malvern, 900 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
• Arkadelphia, 300 Professional Park Drive
• De Queen, 1206 West Collin Raye Drive

Appointments for these clinics can be made by calling toll free (888) 710-8220.

“We are honored to receive this recognition from NCQA,” said Tony Calandro, CEO of Healthy Connections. “This is a testament to the mission of Healthy connections to provide outstanding, compassionate care to the patients we serve.”

Healthy Connections has three of Arkansas’ 13 PCMH Certified Content Experts on its staff, including Michelle Gibson, RN; Amanda Barrett, LPN, and Rachel Tomaskovic, RN.

To earn recognition, Healthy Connections demonstrated the ability to meet the program’s key elements, embodying characteristics of the medical home. NCQA standards aligned with the joint principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home established with the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Osteopathic Association.

Over the past 21 years, Healthy Connections has become a lot of things to the communities it services, including primary care/family medicine provider, dentist, pediatrician, or medical specialist. But mostly it is a place all people can go to receive quality care regardless of their ability to pay.

Healthy Connections accepts Medicaid, including ARKids 1^st, Medicare and most private health insurances. There are also appointment openings for all patients, sometimes even same-day, at all of the clinics. As a Federally-Qualified Health Center, Healthy Connections providers treat thousands of patients each year who have no insurance or not enough insurance to cover essential health and dental services. This is done as part of a sliding-fee schedule, which is determined by the total family income of the patient. Qualified applicants can receive treatment at a reduced rate.

For more information, visit www.healthy-connections.org.

About NCQA
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA’s Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA’s Web site (ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices.