The United States leads the world in health care costs but ranks far below many developed countries in health outcomes. Finding ways to narrow this gap remains elusive. This article describes the response of one state to establish community health networks to achieve quality, utilization, and cost objectives for the care of its Medicaid recipients. The program, known as Community Care of North Carolina, is an innovative effort organized and operated by practicing community physicians. In partnership with hospitals, health departments, and departments of social services, these community networks have improved quality and reduced cost since their inception a decade ago. The program is now saving the State of North Carolina at least $160 million annually. A description of this experience and the lessons learned from it can inform others seeking to implement effective systems of care for patients with chronic illness. 1 Despite these high expenditures, the quality of care remains unsatisfactory. For example, only 27% of patients with hypertension have adequate blood pressure control, and only 17% of patients with coronary artery disease have cholesterol at levels suggested by national guidelines. 2 The United States ranks last in preventable deaths among 19 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. 3 One reason for this quality gap is that, although the prevalence of chronic disease is increasing, our health care delivery system is based on a model that is best suited to episodic care for acute illnesses. Optimal delivery of chronic care and preventive services requires restructuring our health care system. In recent years, much research and discussion have focused on how best to adapt our system to chronic care and prevention. For example, the Chronic Care Model lays out several key elements of high-quality care for chronic diseases, including community resources, health care organization, self-management support, delivery system design, decision support, and clinical information systems. 4 More recently the concept of the patient-centered medical home has received widespread attention as a model to improve care. 5 Seven key principles outline the characteristics of the patient-centered medical home: a personal physician, physician-directed medical practice, a whole-person orientation, coordinated care, quality and safety, enhanced access, and a system of payment that refl ects the added value of a patient-centered medical home.Although these models have shown promise in controlled research settings and small demonstration projects, they have been diffi cult to disseminate widely. 6 One problem with implementation of models in indi- 362 CO M MUNI T Y C A R E O F NOR T H C A ROL INAvidual practices is that the current funding structure of health care is based on acute care. When practices are reimbursed on a fee-for-service basis for episodic care, fi nding the resources to redesign a practice, develop systems of care, and implement the elements of these new models of care can ...

BackgroundPhysicians and patients highly value continuity in health care. Continuity can be measured in several ways but few studies have examined the specific association between the duration of the patient-doctor relationship and patient outcomes. This study (1) examines characteristics of rural adults who have had longer relationships with their physicians and (2) assesses if the length of relationship is associated with patients' satisfaction and likelihood of receiving recommended preventive services.MethodsCross-sectional telephone survey of health care access indicators of adults in selected non-metropolitan counties of eight U.S. predominantly southern states. Analyses were restricted to adults who see a particular physician for their care and weighted for demographics and county sampling probabilities.ResultsOf 3176 eligible respondents, 10.8% saw the same physician for the past 12 months, 11.8% for the previous 13–24 months, 20.7% for the past 25–60 months and 56.7% for more than 60 months. Compared to persons with one year or less continuity with the same physician, respondents with over five years continuity more often were Caucasian, insured, a high school graduate, and more often reported good to excellent health and an income above $25,000. Compared to those with more than five years of continuity, participants with either less than one year or one to two years of continuity with the same physician were more often not satisfied with their overall health care (OR 2.34; OR 1.78), participants with less than one year continuity were more often not satisfied with the concern shown them by their physician (O.R. 1.90) and having their health questions answered, and those with one to two years continuity were more often not satisfied with the quality of their care (OR 2.37). No significant associations were found between physician continuity and use rates of any of the queried preventive services.ConclusionOver half of this rural population has seen the same physician for more than five years. Longer continuity of care was associated with greater patient satisfaction and confidence in one's physician, but not with a greater likelihood of receiving recommended preventive services.

We assessed how commonly people in the rural South perceive racial barriers to care, the characteristics of the people among whom this perception is most common and whether this perception is associated with satisfaction with and use of health services. We analyzed telephone survey data collected in 2002-3, using weighted statistical techniques and multivariate logistic regression in analyses stratified by race. Fifty-four percent of African Americans and 23% of Whites reported that they perceive racial barriers to care in their communities. African Americans who were middle-aged or older, male, or who report being in good-to-excellent health were more likely to perceive racial barriers. Whites who were younger, less educated, and uninsured were more likely than other Whites to perceive racial barriers. For African Americans, perceptions of racial barriers were associated with lower likelihood of being satisfied with care, but not with use of preventive services. The perception of racial barriers to health care is prevalent in the rural South, especially among African Americans. The consequences of this perception may include mistrust and dissatisfaction with medical care.

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OBJECTIVES Numerous studies show that follow-up of abnormal cancer screening results, such as mammography and Papanicolaou (Pap) smears, are frequently not performed in a timely manner. A contributing factor is that abnormal results may go unrecognized because they are buried in free-text documents in electronic medical records (EMRs) and, as a result, patients are lost to follow-up. By identifying abnormal results from free-text reports in EMRs and generating alerts to clinicians, natural language processing (NLP) technology has the potential for improving patient care. The goal of the current study is to evaluate the performance of NLP software for extracting abnormal results from free-text mammography and Pap smear reports stored in an EMR. METHODS A sample of 421 and 500 free-text mammography and Pap reports; respectively, were manually reviewed by a physician and the results categorized for each report. We tested the performance of NLP to extract results from the reports. The two assessments (‘gold’ standard vs. NLP) were compared to determine the precision, recall and accuracy of NLP. RESULTS When NLP was compared to manual review for mammography reports, the results were as follows: precision = 98% (96–99%), recall = 100% (98–100%) and accuracy = 98% (96–99%). For Pap smear reports, the precision, recall and accuracy of NLP were all 100%. CONCLUSION Our study developed NLP models that accurately extract abnormal results from mammography and Pap smear reports. Future plans include using NLP technology to generate real-time alerts and reminders for providers to facilitate timely follow-up of abnormal results.