Tools for data-driven practice transformation
Health care assessments are essential tools for helping health systems of all sizes learn what works — and what doesn't work — to transform care. Assessments aid in bidirectional learning and provide a platform for identifying shared goals that are necessary for making improvements in care.
Through the ACT Center's work on multiple practice transformation initiatives over the decades, we have developed a suite of valuable and renowned assessments that have been translated and adapted by scientists and health care teams around the world. Our assessments are frequently cited in literature and actively used by health systems and research teams to serve patients and providers in dozens of countries.
Assessments of chronic illness care
The Assessment of Chronic Illness Care (ACIC) assists practices in assessing chronic illness care and accelerating improvement. It remains a foundational tool in many health care systems around the world and has been widely adapted and translated into dozens of languages.
The Patient Assessment of Care for Chronic Conditions (PACIC) measures specific actions or qualities of care, congruent with the Chronic Care Model, that patients report they have experienced in the health care delivery system.
Patient-centered Medical Home Assessment
The Patient-centered Medical Home Assessment (PCMH-A) helps primary care practices understand their current level of “medical homeness” and to identify opportunities for improvement. When completed at regular intervals, the PCMH-A can also help track progress toward practice transformation.
The ACT Center developed the PCMH-A for the Safety Net Medical Home Initiative (SNMHI), a partnership with Qualis Health (now Comagine Health) and The Commonwealth Fund. The PCMH-A was extensively tested by the 65 sites that participated in the SNMHI, including federally qualified health centers, residency practices, and other community practices. It has been applied in a number of regional and national care transformation initiatives.
Quality Improvement Change Assessment
The Quality Improvement Change Assessment (QICA) helps clinical practices understand their current level of care for patients with regard to prevention and chronic illness treatment and identify opportunities for improvement. The QICA can also help sites track progress toward practice transformation when it is completed at regular intervals. The QICA was developed for the Healthy Hearts Northwest project, part of EvidenceNOW, an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality initiative, and was extensively used with over 200 participating practices.
Featured publications
Daniel DM, Wagner EH, Coleman K, Schaefer JK, Austin BT, Abrams MK, Phillips KE, Sugarman JR. Assessing progress toward becoming a patient-centered medical home: an assessment tool for practice transformation. Health Serv Res. 2013 Dec;48(6 Pt 1):1879-97. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.12111. Epub 2013 Oct 21.PMID: 24138593. Full text
Glasgow RE, Wagner EH, Schaefer J, Mahoney LD, Reid RJ, Greene SM. Development and validation of the Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care (PACIC). Med Care. 2005 May;43(5):436-44. PMID: 15838407 DOI: 10.1097/01.mlr.0000160375.47920.8c. PubMed
