CONCORD, NH- A New Hampshire primary care education and development organization is teaming up with pediatric specialists at Children's Hospital in Boston to help them transform over 70 pediatric care practices into innovative "medical homes" to improve delivery and coordination of children's health care.

The Center for Medical Home Improvement, a New Hampshire-based organization committed to improving community-based health care systems for children, youth, adults and their families works with the Pediatric Physician Organization at Children's Hospital of Boston (PPOC) to help them create a three-year plan for their PPOC's member practices to develop into medical homes.

CMHI defines the medical home as a community-based primary care setting that providesandcoordinates high quality,planned, family-centered health promotion, acute illness care andchronic condition management.

"We are thrilled to enter into this partnership with the Pediatric Physicians Organization to help them transform the way children's health care is delivered," said Jeanne W. McAllister, RN, MS, MHA, Director of the Center for Medical Home Improvement.

"Pediatricians, family physicians, nurse practitioners and other clinicians are in a position to lead the transformation of their practice into a more fully functioning medical home. In a medical home patients have a personal relationship with their clinician and health care team, a team who remembers them, and enables them to more effectively address health, wellness, preventive and chronic condition care," McAllister said.

The Center for Medical Home Improvement will work with the PPOC to help them assess current needs, including identifying ways in which medical homes could solve current gaps in children's health care, developing ongoing support for the project, and ensuring that the model of care will conform to national standards.

"A medical home is a more efficient and effective way of providing health care," said W. Carl Cooley, M.D., Medical Director of the Center for Medical Home Improvement. "The medical home model improves the satisfaction of providers and teams, and ensures thatprimary care is the first stop."

Blue Cross Blue Shield has agreed to fund the PPOC's Medical Home demonstration project and provide support for this project over the next three years. Navigant Consulting and The Center for Medical Home Improvement will help the PPOC deliver an initial report to Blue Cross Blue Shield by June 30, 2009.

The Center for Medical Home Improvement is a project of the Crotched Mountain Foundation.

For more information: www.medicalhomeimprovement.org

About CMHI

A medical home is community-based primary care practice that coordinates high quality, family-centered health, acute illness care andchronic condition management. Coordinating health care pays enormous dividends. The mission of CMHI (the Center for Medical Home Improvement), a project of the Crotched Mountain Foundation, is to advance the medical home model and secure health policy changes crucial to the future of primary care.

CMHI currently works in partnership with the Special Medical Services division of NHDHHS, the NH Citizen's Health Initiative, Dartmouth Medical School, the Institute on Disability at UNH, and consults nationally on various medical home-related initiatives. For more information: www.medicalhomeimprovement.org

About the Crotched Mountain Foundation

Crotched Mountain is a charitable organization whose mission is to serve individuals with disabilities and their families, embracing personal choice and development, and building communities of mutual support. Crotched Mountain provides specialized education, rehabilitation, community, and residential support services for more than 2,000 individuals living in New England and New York. For more information about the Crotched Mountain Foundation, please visit http://www.crotchedmountain.org/.

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