National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report
Latest available findings on quality of and access to health care
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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.
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1 to 10 of 16 Tools and Resources DisplayedThis toolkit introduces the ABCS of heart health and provides checklists, action plans, and other instructions to guide primary care practices to implement evidence-based guidelines, transform health care delivery, and improve patients’ heart health.
Dr. Chris Jackson, internist, and University of TN College of Medicine faculty, explains why the patient is key when treating heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions.
This care planning worksheet helps primary care practices and their patients together develop a plan of action to manage hypertension, complete with an assessment of readiness to make changes and patient-set goals.
This "plate" is a visual aid that can be used by clinicians to counsel patients on the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Diet. An expanded list of foods (organized by food group) is provided on the second page of the handout.
This is an example template that could be adapted for use in your EHR to ensure a clear understanding of how the patient is monitoring and adhering to recommended treatment for their cardiovascular health, focused on hypertension, cholesterol, and smoking.
Practices can use this clinical flowchart to implement the 5As [ask, advise, assess, assist, arrange for follow-up] to help patients quit smoking, based on their readiness to quit.
This 1-page tool provides advice on how to reach out to patients for follow-up visits or care effectively. It includes examples of outreach messages to patients with hypertension and who smoke.
This 7-minute online video explains how to integrate the cardiovascular risk estimator into office visits to engage patients in improving their heart health.
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.
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.