Exploring the Patient and Staff Experience With the Process of Primary Care.

Purpose: Previous studies suggest that the highest-risk patients value accessible, coordinated primary care that they perceive to be of high technical quality. We have limited understanding, however, of how low-income, chronically ill patients and the staff who care for them experience each individual step in the primary care process.

Methods: We conducted qualitative interviews with uninsured or Medicaid patients with chronic illnesses, as well as with primary care staff.

Perceptions of high-risk patients and their providers on the patient-centered medical home.

To explore perceptions of high-risk patients and their practice staff on the patient-centered medical home, we conducted a multisite qualitative study with chronically ill, low-income patients and their primary care practice staff (N = 51). There were 3 key findings. Both patients and staff described a trade-off: timely care from an unfamiliar provider versus delayed access to their personal physician.