St. Joseph Medical Center in Polson has added a patient-centered medical home to its offerings.

This type of medical home is described as a patient-care model that tracks visits and tries to steer patients toward healthier decisions. In essence, it is a more active approach to health-care than the typical model.

“Our business has always been sick care, not health care,” St. Joseph Chief Executive Officer James Kiser said. “This is a core team approach. We see it as a huge opportunity to keep patients healthy.”

While Polson’s hospital, owned by Providence Healthcare, is one of 23 in the state with a patient-centered medical home, it is one of just four to make level three, considered the top tier.

The organization that judges the quality of those medical homes, the National Council on Quality Assurance, is a nonprofit group dedicated to improving health-care quality. It sets standards and criteria for the three-tiered evaluation system including access to and communication with patients, care management, electronic prescribing and test tracking.

The homes use EpicCare electronic medical records to keep better track of records.

“Using paper charting, it is harder to check on medical background and not as fast,” Kiser said. “As soon as you learn the system, it is very effective.”

Landon Godfrey, communications director for St. Joseph, said the move was a good one for the hospital.

“We see it as a huge opportunity,” he said. “We’re asking patients to have a role in their own health.”

St. Joseph Medical Center is using this new patient-tracking approach for several reasons, one of the largest being that charity care has grown in leaps and bounds in the last several years. 

According to Kiser, charity care costs doubled in 2010, doubled again in 2012 and tripled in 2013.

A patient-centered medical home places some burden of keeping healthy on the patient but tracks progress with long-term diseases like diabetes to reduce repeat visits and high costs.

Much of St. Joseph’s care goes toward Medicare, Medicaid and Indian Health Services patients. The charity care was becoming unsustainable, Kiser said.

“This method will be less costly for patient care,” he said. “We will be the pilot for Western Montana. We are held to a high standard in Providence to provide evidence-based medicine.” 

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.