OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE MODELS OF CARE FOR PEOPLE WITH COMPLEX NEEDS: LITERATURE REVIEW
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Citation Target Population Key Focus Summary of Model/Intervention Key Findings/Outcomes
M. Gerrity, E. Zoller, N. Pinson, C.
Pettinari, and V. King. “Integrating
Primary Care into Behavioral Health
Settings: What Works for Individuals
with Serious Mental Illness.” Millbank
Memorial Fund. 2014. Available at:
http://www.milbank.org/uploads/
documents/papers/Integrating-Primary-
Care-Report.pdf.
Individuals with
serious mental
illness and
substance use
disorder
Behavioral health
integration
Behavioral health integration into primary care
for individuals with serious mental illness (SMI).
The continuum of models ranges from separate
systems and practices with little communication
among providers, to enhanced coordination and
collaboration among providers usually involving
care or case managers, to co-located care with
providers sharing the same office or clinic, to
fully integrated care where all providers function
as a team to provide joint treatment planning. In
a fully integrated system, patients and providers
experience the operation as a single system
treating the whole person.
Care management may improve mental health
symptoms and mental health related quality of life
for patients with bipolar disorder and SMI. Fully
integrated care and care management improves
use of preventive and medical services and may
improve physical health symptoms and quality
of life for patients with bipolar disorder and SMI.
Co-locating primary care in chemical dependency
treatment settings without enhanced coordination
and collaboration does not improve mental
or physical health outcomes. All interventions
required additional staff, training, and oversight
except when intervention staff was dually trained
in primary care and substance use treatment.
J. Greene, J.H. Hibbard, R. Sacks, V.
Overton, and C.D. Parrotta. “When
Patient Activation Levels Change,
Health Outcomes And Costs Change,
Too.” Health Affairs, 34, no. 3 (2015):
431-437. Available at: http://content.
healthaffairs.org/content/34/3/431.
abstract.
Adult primary care
patients
Patient activation Patient Activation Measure (PAM) scores collected
during primary care office visits at baseline (in
2010) and two years later (2012) were examined
against health outcomes related to cholesterol,
triglycerides, PHQ-9, smoking, and obesity.
Higher activation in 2010 was associated with
nine out of thirteen better health outcomes—
including better clinical indicators, more healthy
behaviors, and greater use of women’s preventive
screening tests—as well as with lower costs
two years later. More activated patients were
significantly more likely than less activated
patients to have HDL, serum triglycerides, and
PHQ-9 in the normal range; to be nonsmokers;
and not to be obese. Future research is needed
to establish whether or not the association
represents a causal relationship.
D. Hasselman. Super-Utilizer Summit:
Common Themes from Innovative
Complex Care Management Programs.
Center for Health Care Strategies.
October 2013. Available at: http://
www.chcs.org/resource/super-utilizer-
summit-common-themes-from-
innovative-complex-care-management-
programs/.
Super-utilizers Intensive care
management
Care teams typically include nursing, social work,
and community outreach expertise. Interventions
include extensive outreach and engagement;
24-hour on-call system; frequent contacts with
patients (face-to-face is priority); medication
reconciliation/management; patient-caregiver self-
management education; timely outpatient follow-
up post-discharge; linkage to a primary care
provider/medical home; goal setting and care plan
development; health education/coaching; pain
management; management of chronic conditions
(e.g., diabetes, asthma); preparation for provider
visits; and linkages to housing, substance abuse
treatment, and other community resources.
Individuals’ basic needs—housing, jobs, child
care, and food insecurity—must be addressed
before physical health can be impacted. Programs
“frontload social services” and typically use
non-clinicians and non-traditional providers such
as social workers and community health workers
to address gaps in and needs for social services.
Essential to figure out which patients need which
interventions in which setting by which provider—
this complex equation was noted as the “holy
grail.” Medication management is a critical task
that must be done in the patient’s home to be
most effective.
J. Hibbard, J. Greene, and M. Tusler.
“Improving The Outcomes of Disease
Management by Tailoring Care to the
Patient’s Level of Activation.” The
American Journal of Managed Care,
15, no. 6 (2009): 353-360. Available
at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/19514801.
Individuals with
chronic conditions
Patient activation A quasi-experimental pre-post design was
utilized, with an intervention group, using a
tailored approach and a control group was
coached in the usual way. Intervention coaches
used baseline Patient Activation Measure (PAM)
scores to segment patients based on 4 levels of
activation. The coaches were then trained and
given guidelines to customize telephonic coaching
based on the activation level.
Findings suggest that using tailored coaching
models to the patients’ activation level with
alignment of metrics improves outcomes for
disease management.
J. Hibbard, J. Greene, Y. Shi, J. Mittler,
and D. Scanlon. “Taking the Long View:
How Well Do Patient Activation Scores
Predict Outcomes Four Years Later?”
Medical Care Research and Review,
Published online, February 24, 2015:
doi: 10.1177/1077558715573871.
Available at: http://mcr.sagepub.com/
content/early/2015/02/24/10775587
15573871.abstract.
Individuals with
chronic conditions
Patient activation Researchers examined the extent to which
characteristics such as medication adherence,
health behaviors, functional health, and costly
health care utilization were related to PAM scores
at baseline and 4 years later.
The benefits of patient activation are enduring,
and include: better self-management, improved
functioning, and lower use of costly health care
services over time. When activation levels change,
many outcomes change in the same direction.
Health care delivery systems can use this
information to personalize and improve care.