The WESTMED Medical Group, headquartered in Purchase, has received Level 3 recognition—the highest achievable level--for providing coordinated, efficient, and quality primary patient care--from the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s (NCQA) for the Patient-Centered Medical Home program. “This recognition shows that WESTMED has the tools, systems and resources to provide its patients with the right care at the right time,” said Margaret E. O’Kane, NCQA president.

“What this means to a patient is that WESTMED has gone beyond the role of the primary doctor managing a patient’s acute medical needs that happen from time to time, but takes responsibility for a patient’s ongoing, personalized care,” said Barney Newman, MD, WESTMED’s medical director. “It feels like having the old-style family doctor, but with a team of other professionals at your service, using modern technology, to provide the best possible care when you need it.”

Simeon Schwartz, MD, president of the WESTMED Medical Group, said, “Since we were established in 1996, our mission has been to improve the health of patients and the community. We brought timely, accessible, quality medical care to a wide spectrum of the population, where fragmented, uncoordinated medical care was the norm. In that sense, we are ahead of the curve and can say, in all honesty, that WESTMED is the future of health care today.”

He explained, “Doctors often talk about quality, but don’t measure it. One of the key characteristics of the medical home is that it brings rigorous measurement and quality analysis to prove that the best care is being provided, resulting in fewer hospitalizations and medical errors.”

Dr. Newman said, “Our advanced technology enables us to look at our patient’s individual risks at every stage of life and remind them of health screenings they should have at certain ages. We deliver fast follow-ups with test results and implement necessary treatments without delay. We welcome the active involvement of the patient and the family in health-care decisions.”

NCQA’s Ms. O’Kane commented, “The patient-centered medical home promises to improve health and health care. The active, ongoing relationship between a patient and a physician in medical homes fosters an all-too-rare goal in care: staying healthy and preventing illness in the first place.”

The WESTMED Medical Group is a rapidly growing physician-owned and managed multi-specialty group practice. It is staffed by a team of over 150 physicians dedicated to providing coordinated, efficient, quality care in central and lower Westchester County. The practice uses state-of-the-art systems and electronic medical records to continually improve health-care delivery to Westchester residents. WESTMED has medical offices in White Plains, Rye, Purchase Scarsdale, Eastchester, Bronxville and Yonkers.