Academic Chronic Care Collaborative

The Academic Chronic Care Collaborative (ACCC) is a partnership between the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and Improving Chronic Illness Care, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Problem

One hundred million Americans suffer from chronic conditions. Eighty percent of Medicare recipients have one or more chronic illnesses, a resource burden that amounts to the overwhelming majority of Medicare expenditures. Despite the personal burden of illness and the strain on community resources, many deficiencies remain in the current management of chronic conditions. They include lack of care coordination, hurried practitioners, inadequate use of effective treatments, lack of systematic follow-up to ensure the best outcomes, and patients who are inadequately prepared to manage their own illnesses.

Overcoming these deficiencies requires a transformation of healthcare from a system that is essentially reactive—responding mainly when a patient is sick—to one that is proactive and focused on keeping a person as healthy and functional as possible. To speed this transformation, Dr. Ed Wagner and his colleagues have organized proven approaches to better, more effective care in the Chronic Care Model. This model has guided improvement efforts in hundreds of care settings including the US Department of Veteran's Affairs, Community Health Centers, Kaiser Permanente, and other leading health systems. Nevertheless, few of these have been academic settings with integral involvement of residents and other health professions students.

Mission

The AAMC Institute for Improving Clinical Care has embarked on a partnership with the Improving Chronic Illness Care Program to offer a collaborative initiative to facilitate adoption of the Chronic Care Model in academic settings. This strategy links the organizational resources of the AAMC with the expertise of Wagner's Improving Chronic Illness Care Program to launch the Academic Chronic Care Collaborative.

The Collaborative is anchored in the rationale that health professions students and residents should learn in settings that strive always to deliver the highest standard of care achievable. The initiative will employ the Breakthrough Series Collaborative learning model developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).

Teams will be assembled from a group of academic centers that are prepared to implement change in the care of one or more selected chronic conditions. Teams are encouraged to focus on a condition where the Model has been implemented effectively. Examples of such conditions include diabetes, asthma, congestive heart failure, chronic arthritis, and depression.

The Academic Chronic Care Collaborative will take place over an 18-month period during which multi-disciplinary teams will attend a Kick-off Session, two face-to-face interactive Learning Sessions (I and III), a virtual Learning Session (II), and a Congress that will coincide with the Association of American Medical Colleges Annual Meeting. During the "Action Periods" between each Learning Session, the teams will implement what was learned, assess what changes worked, and devise alternative strategies where needed. During that time the teams will have access to expert advice and troubleshooting, resources, and an opportunity to exchange ideas and information with other collaborative participants through conference calls and an email listserv.

Collaborative Goal

The goal of this collaborative is to improve the care of patients with chronic illness and the education of the health care teams providing the care in academic settings by implementing the Chronic Care Model.

Expectations

Improving Chronic Illness Care (ICIC) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Planning Committee will:

• Provide evidence-based information on the subject matter, application of that subject matter and methods for process improvement, both during and between Learning Sessions

• Build on what has already been developed in the US and use the best change packages and methodology available.

• Provide monthly report written feedback to pilot teams and offer coaching to organizations.

• Provide communication strategies to keep offices connected to the Planning Committee and colleagues during the Collaborative.

• Provide faculty that are experienced in population management to enhance learning.

Participating physician practices offices are expected to:

• Be open to changing actions and system in order to improve clinical management and office efficiency.

• Perform pre-work activities to prepare for the Kick-off Session

• Provide a lead physician who will champion the testing and spread of changes in the practice environment, and will attend all Learning Sessions.

• Send a team from the practice to all Learning Sessions.

• Provide their team time to devote to testing and implementing changes in the practice.

• Test changes that lead to the implementation of the Chronic Care Model and produce change in their practice.

• Use a practice-based patient registry to monitor and report population outcomes (i.e. diabetes measures) on a monthly basis.

• Submit monthly progress reports that include all the measures that your team is using to monitor progress.

• Share information with the Collaborative, including details of changes made, and data to support these changes, both during and between Learning Sessions and for the Closing Congress.

We will strive to meet the Collaborative goals within 18 months by sharing ideas and knowledge, learning and applying a methodology for organizational change, implementing a chronic disease management model and a resident educational model practice-wide, and measuring progress in population outcomes and educational outcomes.

Listed below are our partners, the chronic illness care element(s) that they address, and contact information for each.