Featured Ambulatory Care Stories
Does Use of EHRs Help Improve Quality?
Data from Cleveland—one of RWJF’s Aligning Forces for Quality communities—show that patients with diabetes who are cared for by doctors who use EHRs received all the recommended care for their condition 51 percent of the time, compared with just seven percent of the time for those ...
Albuquerque's First Hospital and Practice Public Reports
The Albuquerque Coalition for Healthcare Quality posted its first ambulatory and hospital quality reports. Hospital Snapshot uses information from Hospital Compare, an online public report developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the U.S. Department of Health &...
West Michigan Doctors Exceed National Averages on Diabetes Care
Public reports are an integral part of the AF4Q initiative in West Michigan. Every physician organization participating in the Alliance for Health public report has scored above the national average on diabetes outcome measures for insured patients. The Alliance for Health has produced two reports o...
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DIAMOND Depression Care Wins High Marks
The innovative DIAMOND Program in Minnesota has shown success in caring for patients with depression. Jim Chase, president of MN Community Measurement said, "We knew improving depression care was a very difficult task. We're now starting to see that clinics that implement changes ... have b...
Puget Sound University Improves Spirometry Testing Quality
The Puget Sound Health Alliance is working with the University of Washington to improve quality in spirometry testing. Spirometry, a common way to measure functioning of the lungs, is used to diagnose conditions ranging from asthma to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. The test is admin...
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Ahead of the [PCMH] game
Better Health Greater Cleveland’s efforts to spread the adoption of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model of care and electronic health records was the subject of a Plain Dealer editorial. The editorial board opined that cost-saving efforts such as medical homes could not only strongl...
Engaging Consumers, Improving Care
A growing number of quality improvement projects are enabling patients, families, and advocates to advise and affect decision-making within their local health care systems. A report from Aligning Forces for Quality shares the experiences of five communities that are engaging consumers to improve amb...
SCPA's Planned Care Collaborative
Watch this video to learn more about the South Central Pennsylvania alliance Planned Care Collaborative and Patient Partner programs!
Coaching for Clinical Change
Better Health Greater Cleveland (Better Health) began offering primary care practices free on-site technical assistance to improve the quality of care and care delivery in 2009. The coaches are focusing their efforts on improving clinical outcomes, care coordination, patient experience, and optimiz...
Local QI Collaborative Provides Framework for Culture Shift
Independent Practice Association (IPA), a major partner in the Humboldt County AF4Q alliance, has long acknowledged the essential role of patient engagement in developing and redesigning systems of care. Yet, putting this value into action has been an incremental process. As the organizational body...