What is a family-centered medical home?

A family-centered medical home is a trusting partnership between a child, a child's family and the pediatric primary care team who oversees the child's health and well-being within a community-based system that provides uninterrupted care with appropriate payments to support and sustain optimal health outcomes.

Medical homes address preventative, acute, and chronic care from birth through transition to adulthood. A medical home facilitates an integrated health system with an interdisciplinary team of patients and families, primary care physicians, specialists and subspecialists, other health professionals, hospitals and healthcare facilities, public health and the community.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) developed the medical home as a model of delivering primary care that is accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family-centered, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally effective to every child and adolescent.

For more information about how the AAP is involved in advancing the implementation of medical homes for all children and youth, please review the Family-centered Medical Home Overview page of the National Center for Medical Home Implemenation Web site.