The Come Home Practices have achieved recognition by Medicare’s Innovation Center as being one of the model practices in the country. The Come Home Practices considers themselves your medical home. The level of service we provide to you is so far above what other practices provide that we were selected to participate in a grant given to Dr. Barbara L. McAneny for 19.8 million dollars to prove that our practice can provide better care at a lower cost. It is this process we refer to as the medical home.

A medical home means that we are committed to providing as many of the services that you need for your care as we possibly can and coordinating your care with other doctors and services for care we cannot provide at the cancer center.

Call your COME HOME Practice first for any concerns, symptoms, questions, or problems that may arise. We will make sure that you get what you need, either here at the cancer center, or by coordinating the care with your primary doctor, your surgeon, or any other specialists you may need.

No one wants to wait for hours in the emergency department when they are feeling sick. If you call your COME HOME Practice first, we will determine if we can solve your problem much more rapidly and conveniently in the clinic without the emergency department wait and unnecessary testing. Because each practice has an electronic health record, all of our doctors and providers have your history at their fingertips. So call your COME HOME Practice if you are sick.

Each COME HOME Practice has first responders answering the phones so that they can transfer your call for billing, scheduling, or medical problems to the appropriate people. If you are sick, they will transfer your phone call immediately to one of our trained oncology triage nurses. Be aware that our nurses will ask you questions regarding your symptoms, this will help them to figure out how urgently you need to be seen.

If you need to be seen today we will make that happen. If you need to be seen so urgently that you require hospitalization or it is an emergency we cannot manage, we will accelerate that emergency care or participate in directly admitting you to the hospital so that you can avoid any delay in emergency department.

If you are ill, our nurses will be asking you specific questions which were developed to help us take care of you promptly and efficiently. We have given our nurses instructions to order certain lab tests for certain problems and can have you seen immediately by one of our providers. This process has been proven to get you the right care in the right place at the right time.

A medical home means we work as a team. Your oncologist, other cancer center providers, the doctor on-call, the nurses, lab technicians, patient care coordinators and first responders are all important members of the team. Everyone has a role to play in getting you what you need as rapidly as possible.

A medical home also means that we coordinate your care with all your other physicians.  Your primary care doctor is a very important member of your cancer-care team. We will make sure that your doctors are aware of everything that is happening to you. We work with your surgeons, gastroenterologists, pulmonary doctors, or any other specialists you may have to make sure that your entire team is on the same page and providing you the care you need.

Medications and radiation therapy are the tools we use to treat your cancer or take care of your blood problem. At each visit our medical assistants will go over your medications with you to make sure that everyone is aware of how you are truly taking these medications. Please remember to bring your medications with you to each visit. This will help you get the treatment you need and avoid side effects from drug interactions.

We have created processes to take care of YOU while you are going through treatment. If you are receiving radiation therapy or chemotherapy, our doctors will be communicating with you frequently and coordinating your care to get you safely through treatments and keep you out of the hospital.

Please call your COME HOME Practice first. DO NOT wait until you are sick. Let our team work with you. The moment you feel something may be wrong call us so we can prevent as many problems as possible.