Senior Scholars Program

Title

Integrated behavioral health practice facilitation in patient centered medical homes: A promising application

UMMS Affiliation

School of Medicine; Senior Scholars Program; Commonwealth Medicine, Office of Program Development

Faculty Advisor

Debra Hurwitz

Publication Date

6-1-2017

Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Health Services Administration | Medical Education | Mental and Social Health

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to assess the degree of behavioral health (BH) integration change in patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) when using a practice facilitator (PF) specially trained in implementing integrated care and how a quasi-experimental design assists in this process.

METHOD: Twelve PCMHs, 8 Federally Qualified Health Centers and 4 private practices, with varying degrees of BH services participated in this study. The degree of BH integration was assessed with a quasi-experimental design using the Maine Health Access Foundation's Site Self Assessment (MeHAF SSA) at baseline and after implementing site-specific BH services. The sites tracked completion of unique objectively measured goals being implemented using the Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) score.

RESULTS: At the conclusion of the study, sites saw a statistically significant increase in the level of BH integration from a baseline of 2.73 (SD = 0.44) to a postintervention score of 3.49 (SD = 0.22) with improvements from mild-moderate overall integration to moderate-advanced overall integration (p < .001). In addition, 10 out of the 12 sites achieved successful implementation of unique goals with assistance from the PF.

DISCUSSION: This study provides the first quasi-experimental/pretest-posttest evidence utilizing real-world data that the practice facilitation method is an effective solution toward increasing the degree of BH integration. This paper describes the real-world efforts to evaluate the degree of BH integration change in PCMHs when using a PF with content expertise in BH integration within primary care.

Keywords

patient-centered medical home, behavioral health care

DOI of Published Version

10.1037/fsh0000273

Source

Fam Syst Health. 2017 Jun;35(2):227-237. doi: 10.1037/fsh0000273.

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Families, systems and health : the journal of collaborative family healthcare

Comments

First author Sarah S. Roderick participated in this study as a medical student as part of the Senior Scholars research program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Related Resources

Link to article in PubMed

PubMed ID

28617023

Link to Full Text

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