Guide to Healthcare Quality and Performance Improvement
Healthcare Quality and Performance Improvement (QI) is a driving force to redesign a high quality and sustainable healthcare system in the United States. As the foundation of the country’s healthcare system, primary care practices are most effective in building healthy and thriving communities when they develop a culture of quality.
Leading the way toward healthcare redesign is the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model, which requires primary care practices to have a systematic focus on QI and safety. Primary care is transformed through QI, improving care and health for patients, improving provider experiences, and decreasing a community’s medical costs overall.
A continuous QI process ensures that PCMHs assess their performance and outcomes and set priorities for areas that need improvement and what’s needed to accomplish those goals. The team of experts at Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC) has assisted more than 800 primary care practices including community health centers, hospital clinics, private practices, and specialty practices in the U.S. achieve PCMH recognition. Because each practice is different, PCDC develops individualized plans to support practices in building capacity, transforming practices, and measuring and improving outcomes. PCDC service options include:
One-to-One Coaching – New York State PCMH Program
Weekly or bi-weekly one-to-one coaching and technical assistance to guide your practice through the NYS PCMH transformation process from start to finish. Services include on-site and/or virtual needs assessment; development of an individualized work plan including a plan for Q-PASS NYS PCMH virtual check-ins; live consulting phone/video conferences; documentation review; preparation for and/or participation in NYS PCMH live virtual check-ins.
One-to-One coaching (outside of New York State)
Weekly or bi-weekly one-to-one coaching and technical assistance to guide your practice through the PCMH transformation process from start to finish. Services include on-site and/or virtual needs assessment; development of an individualized work plan including a plan for Q-PASS virtual check-ins; live consulting phone/video conferences; documentation review; preparation for and/or participation in NCQA live virtual check-ins.
One-to-One Coaching for School-Based Health Centers
Weekly or bi-weekly one-to-one coaching and technical assistance to guide your practice through the PCMH Process for the School-Based Medical Home (SBMH) Recognition Program from start to finish. In 2018, NCQA launched the SBMH Recognition program. School-based health centers seeking recognition must demonstrate they meet NCQA PCMH requirements and complete a school-based health center subset of requirements. Services include those listed above under One-to-One Coaching tailored for SBMH sites.
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The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has identified four categories of external support that can be combined or used alone to assist practices with QI:
- Data feedback and benchmarking provide practices with information on their performance, as compared to external benchmarks (such as regional or national averages) and help target areas for improvement.
- Practice facilitation (or coaching) by external organizations helps practices develop skills and organize their approach to QI, provides QI tools and expertise, and helps them troubleshoot challenges or barriers.
- Expert consultation (also called peer-to-peer mentoring) provides practices with specific evidence-based knowledge from clinicians and staff outside the practice.
- Shared learning or learning collaboratives provide a community in which practices can share challenges, lessons learned, and best practices and draw motivation and inspiration.
Join the growing number of practices PCDC has helped attain PCMH certification, or learn more about our programs that build healthy, thriving communities through community investments, capacity-building, and policy initiatives.
