National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report
Latest available findings on quality of and access to health care
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Key Drivers
Change Strategies
EvidenceNOW: Tools and Resources
The Agency for Healthcare and Quality (AHRQ) offers practical, research-based tools and other resources to help a variety of health care origanizations, provider, and others make care safer in all health care settings. AHRQ's evidence-based tools and resources are used by organizations nationwide to improve the quality, safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of health care. Improving health care quality by increasing the capacity of small primary care practices to implement the best clinical evidence is our aim. These tools and resources can be searched by the key drivers and the change strategies of the EvidenceNOW Key Driver Diagram.
Results
21 to 30 of 46 Tools and Resources DisplayedA tool to help primary care practices screen and refer patients for social needs such as food or housing, so-called social determinants of health (SDOH) which, when identified, can help tailor care to patients’ circumstances.
In this webinar, American Medical Association (AMA) staff discuss how primary care practices can implement each of the 7 steps for implementing self-measured blood pressure (SMBP): (1) Identify patients for SMBP; (2) Confirm device validation and cuff size; (3) Train patients; (4) Have patients perform SMBP; (5) Average results; (6) Interpret results; and (7) Document plans and communicate to patients.
This toolkit outlines seven steps for implementing a patient decision-support framework in primary care. It includes checklists, links to online tutorials for clinicians, and other tools for integrating decision aids into clinical care.
These presentation slides describe four non-prescriptive motivational interviewing strategies that clinicians and primary care practice staff can use to help patients identify and resolve ambivalence in the daily health choices they make.
The checklist is designed to be used in conjunction with the One Heart brochure to help patients focus their office visit on addressing risk factors for heart disease and the illustrated brochure explains how plaque buildup can silently lead to heart disease and suggests questions patients can ask and actions they can take to understand and reduce their risk of heart disease.
This resource is an example of a policies and procedures statement for a Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) for primary care practices and outpatient clinics.
This resource provides clinicians with useful tools to: (1) assess the current physical activity levels of their patients; (2) emphasize with patients the value of long-term exercise and activity for improved health; (3) help patients find activity options that are safe, sustainable, and as enjoyable as possible; and (4) summarize exercise recommendations for heart health and maintaining weight loss.
This practical guide shows practices how to start forming partnerships with patients and family advisors (PFAs) to improve primary care. It provides practice assessment, progress tracking, and PFA recruitment and selection tools.
Based on Lean structured problem-solving methods, this tool uses root cause analysis, diagramming process changes, and measuring implementation progress and effectiveness of changes to help primary care practices maximize efficiency and good outcomes.
This primer includes short descriptions of the following continuous quality improvement (QI) approaches: Model for Improvement, Lean, Six Sigma, and the Baldridge Quality Model.