our work
ACHIA makes it easy for primary care practices to improve and sustain quality care for children and youth
The proverbial estimate is that it takes 17 years to incorporate new knowledge into clinical practice. Barriers to speedier implementation include insufficient opportunities to learn about updated practice guidelines and, perhaps more crucially, insufficient abilities to change and improve clinical systems to reliably deliver quality care. ACHIA addresses both barriers through annual quality improvement (QI) learning collaboratives.
ACHIA's Collaborative Learning Approach for Improved Patient Outcomes
The collaborative structure is inspired by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Breakthrough Series Collaborative Model which closes the gap between ‘what we know and what we do’. This model brings together practices interested in improving care so they may learn from each other and content experts to close the gap quickly. The Model for Improvement (MFI) is the QI tool utilized to rapidly improve clinical systems. With the MFI, practices build multiple, planned tests of change to capture learning in small increments followed by iterative cycles which identify whether a test will work on a larger scale.
Each collaborative has a clinical focus such as improving vaccination rates or reliably screening and following up conditions such as teen depression or developmental concerns.
Topics are selected every five years in a statewide process called a “Q-sort” where those interested in child health outcomes identify topics of greatest need and opportunities for improvement.
Participating in Collaboratives: What to Expect
Collaboratives last six to twelve months. Each practice establishes a core team comprised of a lead physician, an administrative lead, a clinical lead, and others staff to ensure expertise from all relevant aspects of clinical care contribute to improving the clinical system. During a monthly virtual webinar, the core team develop QI skills, interact with Clinical Experts, and discuss tips and challenges with peers around the state. In between meetings, the core team tests changes and collects ‘just enough’ data to know if their change ideas are leading to an improvement. Once reliable processes are identified, they are spread to remainder of the practice. Improvements are sustained after the collaborative by including the updated processes in clinical manuals, job descriptions and ongoing data measurement.
While the principal motivation for practices to participate is to improve care, ACHIA collaboratives deliver additional benefits including the following:
