National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report
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Search All Research Studies
Topics
- Blood Pressure (1)
- Cardiovascular Conditions (5)
- (-) Evidence-Based Practice (6)
- Healthcare Delivery (3)
- Heart Disease and Health (1)
- Implementation (3)
- Organizational Change (1)
- Patient-Centered Healthcare (1)
- Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (3)
- (-) Practice Improvement (6)
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AHRQ Research Studies
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Research Studies is a compilation of published research articles funded by AHRQ or authored by AHRQ researchers.
Results
1 to 6 of 6 Research Studies DisplayedRoss SM, Wang A, Anthony L
Is more better? The impact of implementing more interventions for hypertension control in a practice facilitation study for small- and medium-sized practices.
The purpose of this study was to research the effects of interventions for blood pressure in small- and medium-sized practices. The researchers utilized retrospective analysis on data from Healthy Hearts in the Heartland (H3), a research program conducted in 2016-2018 as part of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's EvidenceNOW initiative, to examine the impact of implementing more interventions for BP control in these settings. The study included 38 H3 practices which met inclusion criteria and researchers assigned each practice to an implementer group (high or low) based on the number of interventions implemented. Practices in the high-implementer group implemented an average of 2.2 additional interventions relative to the low-implementer group. Groups were compared on two measures of BP control: (1) mean percentage of hypertensive patients with a most recent BP below 140/90, and (2) mean systolic and diastolic BP of hypertensive patients. In the first measure, practices in the high-implementer group had better improvement between baseline and the end of the study. Among the 10,150 patients included in the second measure, reductions in mean SBP and DBP were better for the high-implementer group.
AHRQ-funded; HS000078; HS000084; HS023921.
Citation: Ross SM, Wang A, Anthony L .
Is more better? The impact of implementing more interventions for hypertension control in a practice facilitation study for small- and medium-sized practices.
J Hum Hypertens 2023 Nov; 37(11):1007-14. doi: 10.1038/s41371-023-00813-1..
Keywords: Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Conditions, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, Evidence-Based Practice, Practice Improvement
McHugh M, Heinrich J, Philbin S
Declining participation in primary care quality improvement research: a qualitative study.
This qualitative study’s aim was to identify factors leading primary care practices to decline participation in quality initiative (QI) projects, and strategies to improve the feasibility and attractiveness of QI projects in the future. The authors contacted 109 representatives of practices that had declined participation in 1 of 4 AHRQ-funded EvidenceNOW projects. The representatives were invited to either participate in a 15-minute interview or complete a 5-question questionnaire. Representatives from 31 practices responded. Reasons for declining included staff turnover, staffing shortages, and general time constraints, exacerbated by the pandemic, preventing participation in the QI projects. Secondary reasons included challenges with electronic health records, an expectation of greater financial compensation for participation, and confidence in the practices' current care practices. Tying participation to value-based programs and offering greater compensation were identified as strategies to facilitate recruitment. However, none of the respondents’ recommendations addressed the primary issues of staffing challenges and time constraints.
AHRQ-funded; HS027954.
Citation: McHugh M, Heinrich J, Philbin S .
Declining participation in primary care quality improvement research: a qualitative study.
Ann Fam Med 2023 Sep-Oct; 21(5):388-94. doi: 10.1370/afm.3007..
Keywords: Quality Improvement, Primary Care, Quality of Care, Practice Improvement, Organizational Change, Evidence-Based Practice
Berry CA, Nguyen AM, Cuthel AM
Measuring implementation strategy fidelity in HealthyHearts NYC: a complex intervention using practice facilitation in primary care.
This study measured implementation strategy fidelity for the HealthyHearts NYC intervention program, an AHRQ-funded program that uses practice facilitation (PF) to improve adoption of cardiovascular disease evidence-based guidelines in primary care practices. Data from 257 practices measured fidelity using 4 categories: frequency, duration, content, and coverage. Almost all (94.2%) of practices received at least the 13 PF visits with an average 26.3 hours spent at each site by facilitators. Most practices (95.7%) completed all Task List items, and 71.2% were educated on all Chronic Care Models, with the majority (65.8%) receiving full coverage.
AHRQ-funded; HS023922.
Citation: Berry CA, Nguyen AM, Cuthel AM .
Measuring implementation strategy fidelity in HealthyHearts NYC: a complex intervention using practice facilitation in primary care.
Am J Med Qual 2021 Jul-Aug;36(4):270-76. doi: 10.1177/1062860620959450..
Keywords: Implementation, Heart Disease and Health, Cardiovascular Conditions, Primary Care, Practice Improvement, Quality Improvement, Quality of Care, Evidence-Based Practice, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, Primary Care: Models of Care
Solberg LI, Kuzel A, Parchman ML
A taxonomy for external support for practice transformation.
There is no commonly accepted comprehensive framework for describing the practical specifics of external support for practice change. In this study, the researchers’goal was to develop a taxonomy that could be used by both external groups or researchers and health care leaders. The leaders of 8 grants from Agency for Research and Quality for the EvidenceNOW study of improving cardiovascular preventive services in over 1500 primary care practices nationwide worked collaboratively over 18 months to develop descriptions of key domains that might comprehensively characterize any external support intervention.
AHRQ-funded; HS023940.
Citation: Solberg LI, Kuzel A, Parchman ML .
A taxonomy for external support for practice transformation.
J Am Board Fam Med 2021 Jan-Feb;34(1):32-39. doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2021.01.200225..
Keywords: Primary Care, Healthcare Delivery, Cardiovascular Conditions, Evidence-Based Practice, Prevention, Quality Improvement, Practice Improvement, Quality of Care
Sweeney SM, Hemler JR, Baron AN
Dedicated workforce required to support large-scale practice improvement.
Facilitation is an effective approach for helping practices implement sustainable evidence-based practice improvements. Few studies examine the facilitation infrastructure and support needed for large-scale dissemination and implementation initiatives. In this paper, the authors discuss a project by the Agency for Health care Research and Quality in which it funded 7 Cooperatives, each of which worked with over 200 primary care practices to rapidly disseminate and implement improvements in cardiovascular preventive care.
AHRQ-funded; HS023940.
Citation: Sweeney SM, Hemler JR, Baron AN .
Dedicated workforce required to support large-scale practice improvement.
J Am Board Fam Med 2020 Mar-Apr;33(2):230-39. doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2020.02.190261..
Keywords: Practice Improvement, Primary Care, Cardiovascular Conditions, Healthcare Delivery, Quality Improvement, Quality of Care, Prevention, Implementation, Evidence-Based Practice
Ono SS, Crabtree BF, Hemler JR
Taking innovation to scale in primary care practices: the functions of health care extension.
Health care extension is an approach to providing external support to primary care practices with the aim of diffusing innovation. EvidenceNOW was launched to rapidly disseminate and implement evidence-based guidelines for cardiovascular preventive care in the primary care setting. This article describes how cooperatives varied in their approaches to extension and provides early empirical evidence that health care extension is a feasible and potentially useful approach for providing quality improvement.
AHRQ-funded; HS023940.
Citation: Ono SS, Crabtree BF, Hemler JR .
Taking innovation to scale in primary care practices: the functions of health care extension.
Health Aff 2018 Feb;37(2):222-30. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2017.1100.
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Keywords: Primary Care, Implementation, Cardiovascular Conditions, Evidence-Based Practice, Healthcare Delivery, Practice Improvement, Quality Improvement, Quality of Care, Patient-Centered Healthcare, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, Prevention