Insignia Helps the Medical Home

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Engaging Patients As Critical Team Members

Clinical settings are typically constrained for resources, patient volume is high and the patient-provider encounters are relatively brief. Patient support informed by the Patient Activation Measure^®assessment allows clinicians to tailor interactions to a patient’s self-management ability, and to direct resources to better engage the low-activated patient. These individuals tend to be passive in medical encounters, and frequently place responsibility for their health with their doctors. This misplaced responsibility offers healthcare providers an important opportunity to begin the behavior change process through achievable treatment plans and realistic goals.

Tailoring support to levels of activation is being deployed in dozens of medical home programs, including programs with Peace Health (OR & WA), Truman Medical Center (MO), Providence Health System (OR), Multicare (WA), Kaiser Permanente (OR), Fairview Medical System (MN), and Catholic Healthcare (NY).

Success Stories

In the first six months of the program members who engaged with a health coach reduced their inpatient utilization by 18 percent compared with similar members who did not engage with a coach. Emergency department visits fell by 12 percent in the intervention group. Quality-of-life scores improved for 81 percent of participants. Forty-five percent showed improvement in cholesterol values and 42 percent demonstrated a reduction in body mass index. Two-thirds of the participants, or 66 percent, reported an improvement in their patient activation score.

The members’ health care expenditures dropped by $139 per member per month after six months.

The Commonwealth Fund. Dec/Jan Quality Matters Newsletter Case Study