Ambulatory Care | Aligning Forces for Quality

Ambulatory Care

Humboldt Alliance Launches New Website to Help Patients

The Humboldt Alliance’s work to improve public reporting and transparency in health quality metrics was recently featured in the Redwood Times. Aligning Forces Humboldt, in partnership with the Humboldt Del Norte Independent Practice Association, has launched a new webpage to help patients in Humboldt find the best primary care for themselves and their families. The webpage was designed to make it easy to search and compare primary care doctors' offices based on how well doctors provide certain aspects of care, services, tests,...

How 10 High-Achievers Do It in Minnesota

The quality improvement (QI) work of MN Community Measurement (MNCM) was featured in the August 2014 edition of regional medical journal Minnesota Medicine, published by the Minnesota Medical Association.

Since 2011, all Minnesota clinics and hospitals have had to submit their quality improvement numbers annually for a variety of measures to MN Community Measurement. In addition, some submit them to payers, who use the numbers to determine reimbursements. Some even use the information to determine compensation...

Sharing Data to Raise the Value of Care

An Oregon health care organization has been working to improve quality and transparency throughout the state by implementing a new public reporting initiative. The Oregon Health Care Quality Corporation, one of RWJF’s Aligning Forces for Quality communities, has been analyzing and reporting claims data from insurers and Medicaid organizations in order to offer consumers, hospitals, and clinics an unbiased comparison of provider ratings.

The data collected now covers about 3.1 million of the state’s 4 million residents, and has helped clinicians identify gaps in...

Redesigning Primary Care Helps Fill Critical Gaps

The Alliance for Health in Grand Rapids, Michigan, one of RWJF’s Aligning Forces for Quality communities, has been working to close gaps in primary care by linking up patients with depression and other related conditions with care managers. These care managers connect these patients with community services and resources, and help them navigate their journey through a complex health care system.

These efforts are part of a larger primary care transformation in West Michigan, designed to improve care for this vulnerable population. ...

Looking for a new doctor?

Looking for a new doctor? If you live in Massachusetts, it’s easier than ever with HealthcareCompassMA.org. The new consumer-friendly website makes it simple for patients and their families to compare and select a primary care doctor’s office based on quality and patient experience survey ratings. By empowering health care consumers with transparent information about providers, patients are better able to make important decisions about their own care.

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The DOCTOR Project Is...In

How well do the doctors in your community perform when it comes to managing patients' chronic conditions and offering preventive screenings? The DOCTOR Project seeks to find out and let you know.

Launched earlier this year by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the DOCTOR Project is a new initiative that will involve 10 communities across the country developing consumer-friendly reports that measure how physicians in that community perform in delivering high-quality health care. The project will be led by MN Community Measurement, the leader of the Minnesota's Aligning...

Small Providers, Better Diabetes Care

The citizens of Memphis, TN, suffer from Type II diabetes rates above the national average. The average rate of diabetes prevalence in the United States is 8.3 percent, and in Shelby County the average rate is 12 percent, according to the County Health Rankings. Diabetes and pre-diabetes contribute to the majority of premature deaths in Tennessee, according to a recent study from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

And at the front lines of care, primary care physicians in Memphis tackle treating patients with diabetes...

A Holistic Approach to Improving Health Care

Although health care providers have long recognized that many of their patients have both behavioral and physical health needs, there has been a complete disconnect in how this comprehensive care is provided and paid for. Data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication indicated that 34 million American adults, or 17 percent of the adult population, had comorbid mental and medical conditions within a 12-month period. While evidence-based treatments and programs exist for improving care for this population, they are not routinely used. Now, with health reform,...

Pulling Back the Curtain on Primary Care

Patients without the skills to manage their health care incur costs up to 21 percent higher than those of patients who are highly engaged in their care, according to recent research published in Health Affairs. Patient engagement begins with giving patients the tools they need; at its most advanced, it also can mean that patients work directly with providers to provide feedback and strive to improve quality.

Patient Partners is an advanced form of consumer engagement where patients volunteer to join their ambulatory care...

Evolve: Bringing Data to Life for Healthier Communities

The Data

In 2011, the California Health Care Foundation released a report of surgical rates of 13 procedures for selected hospital services areas (HSAs) across the state. The procedures, which are known to be “preference sensitive,” or “elective,” address conditions that could be treated with various interventions depending on the preference of the doctor and patient. At first glance, it can be difficult to understand what the four years of collected data mean at the local level. However, for longtime veterans of Humboldt County...