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Patients Are the Heart of Medical Practice

Some people reach midlife and buy a convertible or dye their hair platinum. Joseph Mambu, MD, did something a little more significant.  

He decided to step off the treadmill of traditional medical practice and start a patient-centered medical home (PCMH).   

“I didn’t feel satisfied, and I was coming to the end of my career. I decided that I was going to either hang up my stethoscope in disgust and leave medicine, which I love, or design a practice the way I thought it should be designed,” Dr. Mambu said. 

That was eight years ago. Although the practice—Family Medicine, Geriatrics, and Wellness—struggled initially, Dr. Mambu was able to grow the practice and develop systems that have helped the practice remain viable.  

“It’s hard, but what I’m doing is very exciting and groundbreaking. It’s a little island in a dark ocean, and I hope these islands can start connecting someday,” Dr. Mambu said. 

Family Medicine, Geriatrics, and Wellness follows TransforMed’s PCMH model. The tenets of the model include patient-centered care, whole-person orientation, and a continuous physician-patient relationship. 

Patients get personalized care at Family Medicine, Geriatrics, and Wellness. They can always get same day appointments, and their appointments last longer than the standard 15 minutes. 

The practice has invested in technology, so they have advanced medical records, patient portals, and programs that print reports on diabetic patients who have not been in the office for a long while. 

The practice also constantly measures patient satisfaction to ensure that patients are receiving the kind of the care they want. 

In May 2008, the practice became a participant in Gov. Ed Rendell’s southeastern Pennsylvania health care reform program. This is one of the first such pilot programs in the country to offer significant payment reform and support for primary care physicians who develop a patient-centered medical home. 

“Patients want medical homes and that’s what I’m trying to develop, but it’s going to be tough reforming and transforming our health care,” Dr. Mambu said.

Want to read more? Visit our home page story archive.