The Institute for Family Health ($49,978)
Montefiore Health System ($49,344)
Northwell Health ($50,000)
To better understand patient perspectives and help prioritize the patient voice in the delivery of high-quality primary care in New York by advancing the use of Patient-Reported Outcomes Measures (PROMs).
Research has shown that patients' and physicians' perceptions of outcomes differ and that taking into consideration patients' views of their health status can lead to more effective interventions. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs), measured with structured, formal, specific questions, can be used to assess symptoms, degrees of physical, social, and emotional function, and health-related behaviors. PRO measures (PROMs) are validated instruments (surveys, questionnaires) that collect this information from patients, and can allow clinicians to track treatment effects and outcomes over time. PROMs are likely to be incorporated as value-based measures when Medicare physician payment is revamped in 2017-2019.
While there is a high level of interest and growing work on PROMs nationwide, little attention has been paid to their application in primary care settings. To advance the use of PROMS as a vehicle for prioritizing the patient voice in the delivery of primary care, the Quality Institute will develop, organize, and implement an 18-month learning collaborative of primary care practices to test the feasibility and utility of integrating PROMs into routine workflow. Project teams at Montefiore, Northwell, and the Institute for Family Health will include highly qualified leaders, multi-disciplinary clinicians, and strong IT support. The initiative will be led by a faculty of nationally recognized experts and the UHF Quality Institute team.
Each organization has selected a population, condition, and/or process as a “use case” for applying and testing PROMs. Practices will pilot standardized patient questionnaires to collect data from patients. The project will identify best practices related to patient questionnaires—when and how to collect information from patients, how to use responses to create care plans, and how to close the loop to assess the impact of care plans on patient health. If successful, key learnings from the collaborative will identify the most promising avenues for larger-scale adoption and spread of PROMs in primary care settings in New York and nationally.