HIGHLIGHTS
- Primary care practices face barriers to providing high quality care.
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality grantees provide quality improvement support.
- Abt provides the grantees technical assistance, dissemination, and evaluation services.
PROJECT
Technical Assistance to and Evaluation of Grant Initiative to Develop State-level Capacity for Dissemination and Implementation of Patient-Centered Outcomes Research into Primary Care (EvidenceNOW: Building State Capacity)
The Challenge
Primary care providers face multiple challenges, including underinvestment, workforce shortages, administrative burdens, and high patient volumes. They all are barriers to providing high quality and evidence-informed care. A growing number of states are developing infrastructure to provide quality improvement (QI) support to help primary care practices implement evidence-based care. These efforts vary widely, and states with the highest burden of disease often do not have the infrastructure or financial support they need to improve health outcomes and reduce health-based inequalities.
The Approach
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ’s) EvidenceNOW: Building State Capacity (EvidenceNOW: BSC) Project has invested $18 million over three years to support four state-based grantees developing statewide infrastructure (cooperatives) based on AHRQ’s primary care extension model. The EvidenceNOW: BSC grantees are located in Alabama, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. Each state has populations with some of the highest rates of preventable cardiovascular disease events in the U.S. The grantees have built state-level cooperatives with a diverse set of partners (including those from clinical, community, payer, and government sectors) to provide external QI support to primary care practices. This support focuses mainly on applying patient-centered outcomes research findings to improve heart health and reduce disparities in cardiovascular disease.
Abt Global is supporting the success of the EvidenceNOW: BSC grant initiative through technical assistance, dissemination, and evaluation delivered by a team of primary care practice improvement experts.
The Results
Key activities of this effort have included:
- Providing tailored technical assistance and 1:1 coaching to the grantees in partnership with Primary Care Development Corporation
- Assisting AHRQ with developing communications materials, including tools, resources, and a How-To-Guide for Developing and Sustaining State-Based Infrastructure to Support Primary Care Quality Improvement
- Designing and conducting a mixed methods evaluation of individual grantees and the overall grant initiative
- Disseminating research findings
- Revising AHRQ’s Primary Care Practice Facilitation Curriculum and converting it into a self-directed eLearning course
- Planning annual grantee meetings and a convening with subject matter experts about how to effectively build state cooperatives for healthcare improvement.
