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Please install flash to view this Slideshow  »COLORADO CLINICAL GUIDELINES COLLABORATIVE – PATIENT-CENTERED MEDICAL HOME PILOTImagine a doctor's office that revolves around the patient. A caring team knows your name, greets you with a plan to achieve your health goals, answers emails quickly and provides same-day appointments so you can see your doctor immediately when you're sick. David Ehrenberger, MD, of Broomfield Family Practice is eager to provide such service under a groundbreaking national pilot program. Supported by The Colorado Trust, along with The Commonwealth Fund and the Harvard School of Public Health, the pilot will test a health care delivery system called "patient-centered medical homes." At a practice that adopts the medical home vision, patients should feel like they've found a partner to heal them when they're sick, and set a course to keep them well. "It's like Marcus Welby on steroids," Ehrenberger said of the concept, describing both its patient- centered focus and the powerful technology that will boost communication, cut errors and increase cooperation among health professionals. Ehrenberger became a family doctor so he could build relationships with patients like Welby, the legendary TV doctor. Two decades into his career, he found himself sprinting on a treadmill, trying to see more and more patients each day to keep up with costs. Increasingly, paperwork and insurance snafus were bogging him down. Under the medical home system, Ehrenberg erenvisions a much saner system. He'll actually get paid to keep patients well, not to simply shuffle them in and out as fast as possible. "We're definitely pioneers," he said. "You can't just say you're doing it. You have to prove it. It's nothing short of a revolution."
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