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Chronic Care Management for Adults at FQHCs

Not Applicable
Conditions
Any Condition in N73.0 Specified as Chronic
Interventions
Other: Attention control phone calls
Other: Active self-management intervention
Registration Number
NCT02136732
Lead Sponsor
Washington State University
Brief Summary

With a growing aging population, the number of persons with chronic conditions continues to escalate and challenges related to chronic care quality, effectiveness and cost remain unresolved.Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) have experienced increasing numbers of patient visits for chronic conditions, and FQHC patients are more likely to have serious chronic conditions when compared to patients being cared for by non-FQHC providers.

The Chronic Care Intervention (CCI) combines home visiting with health activation coaching and has resulted in improved health status and reduced expenditures (Preliminary Studies). Implementing the CCI for aging adults with multimorbidity (2 or more chronic conditions) and high baseline acute care utilization, allows us to test and expand the efficacy, external validity and cost effectiveness of the proposed intervention model. The investigators seek to improve patients' and FQHCs' abilities to effectively manage chronic conditions and reduce acute care use. This contribution is significant because it potentially extends our knowledge about effective community partnerships and best practices that can enhance the effectiveness of health homes in providing patient-centered team-based care for patients with multimorbidity and high baseline health care utilization.

Detailed Description

With a growing aging population, the number of persons with chronic conditions continues to escalate and challenges related to chronic care quality, effectiveness and cost remain unresolved. Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) have experienced increasing numbers of patient visits for chronic conditions, and FQHC patients are more likely to have serious chronic conditions when compared to patients being cared for by non-FQHC providers. Effectively managing multiple chronic conditions is particularly challenging for both patients and health professionals, and costs of care rise as the number of co-morbid conditions increases. FQHCs primarily serve patients with public insurance or those who are uninsured. Consequently, simultaneously controlling costs and improving chronic care is a critical issue for the FQHC system. Two approaches that have been used to improve health status and reduce health care utilization are preventive home visiting and patient activation counseling. Preventive home visiting allows for multidimensional assessment and individualized, patient-centered care, and there is wide agreement that engaging patients to be an active part of the care process is an essential element of the quality of care. This concept is known as "health activation".

The Chronic Care Intervention (CCI) combines home visiting with health activation coaching and has resulted in improved health status and reduced expenditures (Preliminary Studies). Implementing the CCI for aging adults with multimorbidity (2 or more chronic conditions) and high baseline acute care utilization, allows us to test and expand the efficacy, external validity and cost effectiveness of the proposed intervention model. The investigators seek to improve patients' and FQHCs' abilities to effectively manage chronic conditions and reduce acute care use. This contribution is significant because it potentially extends our knowledge about effective community partnerships and best practices that can enhance the effectiveness of health homes in providing patient-centered team-based care for patients with multimorbidity and high baseline health care utilization.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
UNKNOWN
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
290
Inclusion Criteria
  • 45 years of age or older, 2 or more chronic conditions, 2 or more emergency department visits or hospital admissions in previous 12 months.
Exclusion Criteria
  • terminal illness, dementia, case management elsewhere, resident of adult family home, boarding home or skilled nursing facility, homeless.

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Attention control phone callsAttention control phone callsParticipants will receive an initial visit and then a phone call every other month from a social services aide who can provide information about community resources that might be helpful.
Active self-management interventionActive self-management interventionParticipants will receive home visits and phone calls from a registered nurse and social worker. The registered nurse and social worker will provide participants one on one coaching, education, support and referrals to community resources to help them manage their chronic conditions.
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
patient activationchange from baseline to 3, 6, and 12 months

Patient activation will be measured using the Patient Activation Measure. Higher scores on this tool indicate that the patient is more involved in self-managing care and partnering with health care professionals to achieve better health outcomes.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
acute care utilizationchange in acute care utilization from baseline year to intervention year

Acute care utilization is defined as visits to the emergency department and admissions to the hospital

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Community Health Association of Spokane

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Spokane, Washington, United States

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