Dr. Kay Hornbrook and I were both in established practices when the idea of building a UnityPoint (then Iowa Health) clinic in the up and coming Prairie Trail development was brought to us. We both had strong ties to Ankeny and were excited to be able to move our practices to this unique area. Dr. Hornbrook had been working at East Des Moines Family Care Center both seeing patients and teaching resident physicians. I had been practicing at the Grimes Family Physicians Clinic for 15 years.
Dr. Doug Layton
We both live in Ankeny and enjoy the active involved attitude of its residents, but we felt Prairie Trail planned to take that one step further. The Prairie Trail community is designed around a physical and mental wellness, interaction with your neighbors and walkable businesses in the area. It is a community home.
The community home concept that was being developed here fit well with one of our first projects after opening our doors. UnityPoint Family Medicine at Prairie Trail decided to become certified as a Patient Centered Medical Home. This is a great medical practice style concept that has been advanced to the level of a nation certification.
The certification is through the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). The NCQA defines the medical home program as a “health care setting that facilitates partnerships between individual patients and their personal physicians, and when appropriate, the patient’s family.”
The certification requires practicing by national guidelines for chronic and preventative conditions, and focuses on chronic disease management, adult preventative medicine and well-child services. The goal is to keep patients healthy and involve them in care decisions. I often describe it as bringing back old fashion family medicine. You don’t see your physician once a year or twice a year for scheduled visits and then go to the walk in the rest of the year. We want to take care of all of your medical needs and tie every visit into your overall health.
Our goal is to bring patients into discussions with their health care team (physician, medical assistants, physical therapist, dieticians, diabetic educators and anyone one else needed for your care) to better determine their own health goals. We feel that is what patient-centered medical home is all about. We have seen an increase in provider, staff and patient satisfaction with the implementation of this program. We are excited to continue our work on this certification and fitting it into the Prairie Trail life style.
Doug Layton
Family Medicine Physician
Ankeny Family Physicians at Prairie Trail