The Safety Net Medical Home Initiative

Change Concepts

Quality Improvement Strategy
  • Quality Improvement (QI) StrategyChoose and use a formal model for quality improvement.
  • Establish and monitor metrics to evaluate improvement efforts and outcome; ensure all staff members understand the metrics for success.
  • Obtain feedback from patients/family about their healthcare experience and use this information for quality improvement.
  • Ensure that patients, families, providers, and care team members are involved in quality improvement activities.
  • Optimize use of health information technology to:
  • Schedule appointments and monitor access to care.
  • Define and understand their patient population, including subpopulations.
  • Define and track care of individual patients and subpopulations, including referrals and abnormal lab/imaging results.
  • Provide patient-specific educational materials.
  • Provide individual care reminders.
  • Provide patient summary data at time of visit.
  • Enable feedback to team and for external reporting on processes of care and population outcomes.
  • In addition, PCMH practices strive to use technology to improve communication between patients and practices through: 
    • Online/web-based interactive support for care.
    • A means of secure communication with patients and caregivers, allowing them to build personal health records.

The Quality Improvement (QI) Strategy Change Concept provides an infrastructure for achieving patient-centered medical homeness. The goal of this change concept is to establish a quality improvement methodology that engages and empowers all members of the care team, including patients and family members. 

Developing a QI strategy will require goal-setting around the other Change Concepts and will require regular measurement to indicate to the QI team whether the changes that they are putting in place are moving them closer to their goal. Measurement will also be used to demonstrate successful accomplishment of these goals to clinic and organizational leaders. Health information technology, e.g., electronic medical records, can support measurement and reporting, for example, demonstrating how frequently a patient population is receiving organized, evidence-based care.

The QI Strategy Change Concept is also linked to the Patient-Centered Interactions Change Concept, as forming a QI strategy necessitates asking patients and family members about their healthcare experience and taking actions to improve upon any identified opportunities.

Quality Improvement Strategy Resources