Unlocking the black box: supporting practices to become patient-centered medical homes.

BACKGROUND: Despite widespread interest in supporting primary care transformation, few evidence-based strategies for technical assistance exist. The Safety Net Medical Home Initiative (SNMHI) sought to develop a replicable and sustainable model for Patient-centered Medical Home practice transformation. OBJECTIVES: This paper describes the multimodal technical assistance approach used by the SNMHI and the participating practices' assessment of its value and helpfulness in supporting their transformation. RESULTS: Components of the technical assistance framework included: (1) individual site-level coaching provided by local medical home facilitators and supplemented by expert consultation; (2) regional and national learning communities of participating practices that included in-person meetings and field trips; (3) data monitoring and feedback including longitudinal feedback on medical home implementation as measured by the Patient-centered Medical Home-A; (4) written implementation guides, tools, and webinars relating to each of the 8 Change Concepts for Practice Transformation; and (5) small grant funds to support infrastructure and staff development. Overall, practices found the technical assistance helpful and most valued in-person, peer-to-peer-learning opportunities. Practices receiving technical assistance from membership organizations with which they belonged before the SNMHI scored higher on measures of medical home implementation than practices working with organizations with whom they had no prior relationship. CONCLUSIONS: There is an important role for both local and national organizations to provide nonduplicative, mutually reinforcing support for primary care transformation. How (in-person, between-peers) and by whom technical assistance is provided may be important to consider.

Staff and Clinician Work-Life Perceptions after Implementing Systems-Based Improvements to Opioid Management.

BACKGROUND: The Six Building Blocks Program is an evidence-based approach to primary care redesign for opioid management among patients with chronic pain. This analysis assesses the impact of implementing the Six Building Blocks on the work-life of primary care providers and staff. METHODS: Six rural and rural-serving primary care organizations with 20 clinic locations implemented the Six Building Blocks with support from a practice facilitator, clinical experts, and an informatics specialist. After 15 months of support, interviews and focus groups were conducted with staff and clinicians in each organization to stimulate reflection on the process and outcomes of implementing the Six Building Blocks Program. Transcripts of interviews and focus groups were coded and analyzed using template analysis. Once a set of themes was agreed on, the primary qualitative analyst revisited the source data to confirm that they accurately reflected the data. RESULTS: Overall, implementing the Six Building Blocks improved provider and staff work-life experience. Reported improvements to work-life included increased confidence and comfort in care provided to patients with long-term opioid therapy, increased collaboration among clinicians and staff, improved ability to respond to external administrative requests, improved relationships with patients using long-term opioid therapy, and an overall decrease in stress. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians and staff reported improvement in their work-life after implementing the Six Building Blocks Program to improve opioid medication management. Further research is needed on patient experiences specific to practice redesign programs.

Small steps to health: building sustainable partnerships in pediatric obesity care.

BACKGROUND: Given the prevalence of childhood obesity and the limited support for preventing and managing obesity in primary care settings, the Seattle Children's Hospital's Children's Obesity Action Team has partnered with Steps to Health King County to develop a pediatric obesity quality-improvement project. METHODS: Primary care clinics joined year-long quality-improvement collaboratives to integrate obesity prevention and management into the clinic setting by using the chronic-disease model. Sustainability was enhanced through integration at multiple levels by emphasizing small, consistent behavior changes and self-regulation of eating/feeding practices with children, teenagers, and families; building local community partnerships; and encouraging broader advocacy and policy change. Cultural competency and attention to disparities were integrated into quality-improvement efforts. RESULTS: . Participating clinics were able to increase BMI measurement and weight classification; integrate management of overweight/obese children and family and self-management support; and grow community collaborations. Over the course of 4 years, this project grew from a local effort involving 3 clinics to a statewide program recently adopted by the Washington State Department of Health. CONCLUSIONS: This model can be used by other states/regions to develop pediatric obesity quality-improvement programs to support the assessment, prevention, and management of childhood obesity. Furthermore, these health care efforts can be integrated into broader community-wide childhood-obesity action plans.