The Health Care Home (HCH) is a model of care based around the general practice and designed to improve the quality and sustainability of services as well as the experience of both patients and staff.
First introduced into New Zealand over a decade ago, it has now been incorporated into more than 200 general practices covering an enrolled population of over 1.45 million people. It is being continually refined and developed for our New Zealand context, with the most recently updated version of the model of care enhanced for equity, lived experience leadership and honours Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
The Health Care Home model shifts the traditional system of general practice from one that is mostly reactive, to a more proactive, team-based approach that focuses on the individual needs of the patient and their whānau. It is made up of a number of core elements, involving processes such as triaging patients to ensure urgent appointments are available to those who need them most; offering consultations by phone, video or email as well in person; and taking a proactive and partnership approach to care for people with long term conditions such as asthma and diabetes.
HCHs has been framed in the context of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, of Wai 2575, of Pae Ora and Whānau Ora, to ensure that the HCH enhanced model of care embraces Māori models of health and its domains related to Māori world views, delivering tangible benefits for Māori and other priority populations.
