AHRQ Practice Toolbox: Practice transformation

March 8, 2018|Family Practice News

Janice L. Genevro, PhD;Theodore G. Ganiats, MD

Care coordination. The main goal of care coordination is to meet patients’ needs and preferences in the delivery of high-quality, high-value health care. This means that the patient’s needs and preferences are known and communicated at the right time to the right people, which results in safe, appropriate, and effective care. AHRQ’s resources in this area offer examples of care coordination approaches and activities, as well as guidance and models for understanding and measuring patients’ perceptions of care coordination.

Improvement approaches related to patient engagement and support. Several different types of resources related to patient engagement are available. These include the what, why, and how of self-management support, implementing health literacy universal precautions, and engaging patients and families in patient safety efforts.

AHRQ’s Primary Care YouTube channel offers videos from clinical staff, researchers, and others describing their work in many of these areas.

Other resources also are available. One of the most popular approaches to transformation involves taking steps to make your practice a patient-centered medical home (PCMH). AHRQ’s Patient-Centered Medical Home Resource Center website features evidence, examples, and lessons learned from primary care practices that have transformed their approach to the organization and delivery of care. Policymakers, researchers, practices, and practice facilitators can access evidence-based resources about the medical home and its potential to transform primary care and improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of U.S. health care.