Improving Patient Centered Medical Home Research, Evaluation, and Implementation

It continues the work Mathematica began in September 2009 in supporting the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and federal partners to study, collaborate, and produce recommendations to facilitate the development and implementation of models like the patient centered medical home (PCMH) that aim to transform the organization and delivery of primary care. This project provides information to organizations that are working to transform primary care, primary care practices, policymakers, and researchers. We support a forum for over 263 federal partners across 12 agencies to learn about the PCMH and build collaborations, as well as a learning network of over 500 individuals with an interest in practice facilitation who share questions, resources, and events through a listserv and webinars.

We are developing a series of white papers and briefs on:

• Using Health Information Technology to Support Quality Improvement in Primary Care
• Creating Patient-Centered Team-Based Primary Care
• Strategies for Practice Facilitators to Engage Primary Care Practices in Ongoing Quality Improvement
• A Guide to Real-World Evaluations of Primary Care Interventions: Some Practical Advice

We are also developing comprehensive and robust resources to train the emerging primary care practice facilitation (PCPF) workforce:

• Environmental scan of practice facilitation resources
• Case studies of three exemplar PCPF training programs
• Model curriculum that builds on existing knowledge of PCPF, with input from a technical expert panel
• PF webinar series introducing resources and presenting on topics in practice facilitation
• An electronic newsletter sharing information about practice facilitation and resources targeted at practice facilitators and those who train them

Finally, we are working with AHRQ to communicate and disseminate their products. We are helping AHRQ revise their web portal on the PCMH and providing content for the website and targeted mailings and presentations.