Implementation Of Chronic Care Model Research Articles

An ethical justification for the Chronic Care Model (CCM).

Chronic diseases are major causes of morbidity and mortality in developed countries. Their effects can be mitigated by high quality evidence-based care, but this is not the norm in most systems. The Chronic Care Model (CCM) is an evidence-based policy response to this practice gap, which uses multiple strategies to promote the quality of chronic care. To review CCM with an ethical lens. We reviewed the published empirical and non-empirical articles of CCM to analyse the ethical underpinnings of this model. We argue that its principal ethical value lies in the institutional cooperation it builds between the stakeholders involved in health care services. First, we briefly describe CCM and argue that the pathways through which it aims to improve patients' health outcomes are not made explicit. Second, we argue that the potential of CCM to be more beneficent, compared with traditional health care systems, depends on its capacity to promote mutual trust between health care providers and patients. There is no evidence to date that the implementation of CCM enhances mutual trust between health care professionals and patients. Third, we argue that CCM seeks to enhance human agency, allowing increased expression of individual autonomy and increased respect for individuals thereby expanding human freedom and avoiding social discrimination. However, we review the communication patterns that characterize the model of doctor-patient relationship promoted by this model and argue that these communication patterns raise ethical concerns that may prevent the model from reaching its expected outcomes.

The Chronic Care Model and Relationships to Patient Health Status and Health-Related Quality of Life

The chronic care model (CCM) is a system-level framework used to guide quality improvement efforts in health care. However, little is known about its relationship to patient-level health measures. This study describes the implementation of the CCM as adapted for prevention and health behavior counseling in primary care practices, and examines relationships between the CCM and patient health measures, including general health status and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Baseline data from Round 2 of the Prescription for Health initiative (2005-2007) were used to assess CCM implementation in 57 practices located nationwide. Relationships between the CCM and three separate measures of health among 4735 patients were analyzed in 2007. A hierarchical generalized linear modeling approach to ordinal regression was used to estimate categories of general health status, unhealthy days, and activity-limiting days, adjusting for patient covariates and clustering effects. Outcome variances were significantly accounted for by differences in practice characteristics (p<0.001). Practices that used individual or group planned visits were more likely to see patients in lower health categories across all measures (OR=0.74-0.81, p<0.05). Practices that used patient registries, health promotion champions, evidence-based guidelines, publicly reported performance measures, and support for behavior change were associated with higher patient health levels (OR=1.28-1.98, p<0.05). A practice's implementation of the CCM was significantly related to patient health status and HRQOL. Adapting the CCM for prevention may serve to reorient care delivery toward more proactive behavior change and improvements in patient health outcomes.

The Impact of Implementing a Chronic Care Residency Training Initiative on Asthma Outcomes

To examine the impact of a chronic care residency training intervention on continuity clinic patients' asthma-related emergency department use and primary care residents' application of key elements of the Chronic Care Model (CCM). In 2002 and 2003, the authors conducted a pre- and posttraining survey of 41 intervention residents at Maine Medical Center to assess residents' implementation of the CCM. The change in implementation for intervention residents was compared with that of 77 primary care residents not receiving CCM training. Asthma-related emergency department (ED) use by 441 patients cared for by intervention residents was compared with that of other asthma patients at Maine Medical Center using hospital billing records. At baseline, residents in both groups reported sporadic application of key elements of the CCM. At posttest, Maine Medical Center residents reported significantly greater increases in CCM implementation than the comparison group for 4 out of the 12 items. The greatest increases were in residents' access to asthma guidelines, the proportion of patients receiving written asthma management plans, and residents' access to information on community asthma programs. The number of asthma-related ED visits dropped significantly among patients treated by intervention residents (pediatric patients 42%, adults 44%). There was a slight increase in asthma ED use for nonintervention pediatric patients at the hospital (8%) and a very small decrease for adults (3%). Chronic care training programs for residents may influence the health outcomes of patients treated in their continuity clinics while simultaneously offering an important educational experience in an underemphasized area of medicine.

Challenges of change: a qualitative study of chronic care model implementation.

The Chronic Care Model (CCM) provides a conceptual framework for transforming health care for patients with chronic conditions; however, little is known about how to best design and implement its specifics. One large health care organization that tried to implement the CCM in primary care provided an opportunity to study these issues. We conducted a qualitative, comparative case study of 5 of 18 group clinics 18 to 23 months after the implementation began. Built on knowledge of the clinics from a previous study of advanced access implementation, data included in-depth interviews with organizational leaders and varied clinic personnel, observation of clinic care processes, and review of written materials. Relatively small and highly variable care process changes were made during the study period. The change process underwent several marked shifts in strategy when initial efforts failed to achieve much and bore little resemblance to the change process used in the previously successful large-scale implementation of advanced access scheduling. Many barriers were identified, including too many competing priorities, a lack of specificity and agreement about the care process changes desired, and little engagement of physicians. These findings highlight specific organizational challenges with health care transformation in the absence of a blueprint more specific than the CCM. Effective models of organizational change and detailed examples of proven, feasible care changes still need to be demonstrated if we are to transform care as called for by the Institute of Medicine.

Care quality and implementation of the chronic care model: a quantitative study.

We wanted to test whether improvements in care quality were correlated with changes in the Chronic Care Model (CCM) in a large medical group that attempted to implement the CCM. The leaders of 17 primary care clinics in this medical group completed the Assessing Chronic Illness Care (ACIC) survey measure of CCM implementation before and after care system changes were made. We used administrative data to measure care quality changes for yearly samples of patients with diabetes, coronary heart disease, or depression. The total ACIC score for the CCM increased by an overall average of 1.4 points (from 5.8 to 7.2 on a scale of 1 to 11, P = .02) and significant increases occurred for 3 of the 6 components of the CCM. During this time, patients experienced a significant increase in the proportion meeting a composite outcome measure for low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and glycated hemoglobin levels (from 15.7% to 25.5%, P = .001). Heart disease patients meeting a composite measure for LDL values increased from 46.8% to 57.8%, and the percentage of patients with 1 or more cardiac events dropped from 17.2% to 11.4% (P = .001 for each). Persistent use of new antidepressants did not change, but more of these patients had follow-up visits (P = .02). Only the diabetes measure was significantly correlated with 2 CCM elements-clinical information systems and decision support. Despite implementation of the CCM and improvements in quality measures for 3 chronic diseases, there were few significant correlations between these changes. Showing such a relationship may require larger changes, a larger number of clinics, changes in other CCM elements, or a more-sensitive measurement tool.

Assessing the Implementation of the Chronic Care Model in Quality Improvement Collaboratives

To measure organizations' implementation of Chronic Care Model (CCM) interventions for chronic care quality improvement (QI). Monthly reports submitted by 42 organizations participating in three QI collaboratives to improve care for congestive heart failure, diabetes, depression, and asthma, and telephone interviews with key informants in the organizations. We qualitatively analyzed the implementation activities of intervention organizations as part of a larger effectiveness evaluation of yearlong collaboratives. Key study variables included measures of implementation intensity (quantity and depth of implementation activities) as well as fidelity to the CCM. We developed a CCM-based scheme to code sites' intervention activities and criteria to rate their depth or likelihood of impact. The sites averaged more than 30 different change efforts each to implement the CCM. The depth ratings for these changes, however, were more modest, ranging from 17 percent to 76 percent of the highest rating possible. The participating organizations significantly differed in the intensity of their implementation efforts (p<.001 in both quantity and depth ratings). Fidelity to the CCM was high. Collaborative participants were able, with some important variation, to implement large numbers of diverse QI change strategies, with high CCM fidelity and modest depth of implementation. QI collaboratives are a useful method to foster change in real world settings.