Impact of Patient Activation and Engagement on Patient-Centered Outcomes of Care in ACOs (ACTIVATE)

The Comparative Impact of Patient Activation and Engagement on Improving Patient-Centered Outcomes of Care in Accountable Care Organizations

The investigators will study the delivery of care to patients with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases from 16 practices in health care organizations who receive incentives for improving the quality of patient care. Half of those will be far along in engaging patients in their care and half will not. The investigators will see whether patients with diabetes or cardiovascular diseases who receive care from practices that more fully involve their patients have better clinical outcomes and satisfaction with their care than those who do not. The investigators expect that these findings will help practices and patients to achieve better outcomes of care.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Cardiovascular Disease; Diabetes
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Observational: Patient Activation and Engagement (PAE)

Detailed Description

BACKGROUND Engaged patients have been referred to as "…the blockbuster drugs of the 21st century". Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are required to engage patients. The specific question we will address is: Do patients receiving care from ACO practices with highly developed patient activation and engagement (PA&E) activities achieve better patient reported health outcomes, report better experiences of care, and have better selected clinical measures (blood pressure, hemoglobin levels, and LDL-C) compared to patients receiving care from ACO practices with less developed PA&E initiatives? We plan to capitalize on the natural occurring variation in degree of implementing PA&E activities.

OBJECTIVES

1) To collect information on the PA&E activities in 16 practices of two ACOs at baseline and over three years - including initiatives focused on disease prevention and health promotion, care team-patient communication, shared decision-making, self-management support, advanced serious illness care, and patient involvement in the care redesign experience; 2) to assess the differences on patient-reported outcomes of care, patient experiences, and selected clinical measures between patients exposed to highly developed PA&E initiatives versus those receiving care from practices with minimal PA&E activities; and 3) examine practice-level variation in PA&E implementation processes including culture, leadership, teamwork, and relational coordination.

METHODS We will take advantage of the naturally occurring variation in the implementation of PA&E activities in 16 practices of two ACOs treating patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD). A random sample of chronically-ill patients from each of the two ACOs will be sampled and will complete a patient-reported outcome instrument that includes select Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROMIS) measures and patient experience measures in early and late stages of the project. They will also complete the patient activation measure (PAM). We will examine changes over time in the outcome variables noted above. We will also survey ACO/ practice stakeholders regarding organizational culture, leadership, team effectiveness, and relational coordination using previously validated instruments supplemented by site visits. Multilevel analyses examine PA&E effects and practice-level heterogeneity within ACOs, controlling for patient characteristics.

PATIENT OUTCOMES The proposed project's explicit focus on examining the PA&E activities of ACO practices with highly developed PA&E activities in comparison with those with very little and linking these to the outcomes measures noted above should be of great interest to patients, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and the health care policy and practitioner community. The findings should help to guide PCORI's future research agenda in this area while providing all involved with knowledge to advance patient-centered care.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 2176

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Berkeley, California, United States, 94720
      • University of California, Berkeley
    • Torrance, California, United States, 90502
      • HealthCare Partners Insitute for Applied Research and Education
  • Illinois
    • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60515
      • Advocate Health Care
  • New Hampshire
    • Hanover, New Hampshire, United States, 03755
      • Dartmouth Colelge

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 82 years (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

4368 patients with diabetes or cardiovascular disease receiving care from selected clinics at two Accountable Care Organizations in Los Angeles, CA and Chicago, IL.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• adult, 18-82
• diagnosis of diabetes or cardiovascular disease
• receives primary care at one of 16 selected clinical sites from two Accountable Care Organizations

Exclusion Criteria:

• Incomplete mailing address available from Electronic Medical Record
• Patient language other than English or Spanish

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Patients at high PAE clinic; Patients with diabetes or cardiovascular disease receiving care within two Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) at clinics with high implementation of patient activation and engagement activities. Observational: Patient Activation and Engagement (PAE)	Other: Observational: Patient Activation and Engagement (PAE); Observational: Patients receive care from clinics with either low or high levels of patient activation and engagement activities.
Patients at low PAE clinic; Patients with diabetes or cardiovascular disease receiving care within two Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) at clinics with low implementation of patient activation and engagement activities. Observational: Patient Activation and Engagement (PAE)	Other: Observational: Patient Activation and Engagement (PAE); Observational: Patients receive care from clinics with either low or high levels of patient activation and engagement activities.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
PROMIS Short Form 8a	Patient Reported Social Functioning, scale 1 (always trouble or limited)-5 (never trouble or limited). Outcome measure is the mean of the change in scores reported by each patient between baseline (2015) and at one-year follow-up (2016).	1 year
PROMIS Short Form 12a	Patient-Reported Physical Functioning, scale 1 (unable to do activity) -5 (no difficulty). Outcome measure is the mean of the change in scores reported by each patient between baseline (2015) and at one-year follow-up (2016).	1 year
PHQ-4	Patient Reported Emotional Functioning, scale 1 (anxious or depressed nearly every day) -5 (not at all anxious or depressed). Outcome measure is the mean of the change in scores reported by each patient between baseline (2015) and at one-year follow-up (2016).	1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of California, Berkeley
• Collaborators: Dartmouth College; Advocate Health Care; HealthCare Partners Institute for Applied Research and Education
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Stephen M Shortell, PhD,MPH,MBA, University of California, Berkeley

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: April 1, 2015
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 1, 2017
• Study Completion (Actual): September 30, 2017

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 6, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 10, 2014
• First Posted (Estimate): November 11, 2014

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 15, 2017
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 18, 2017
• Last Verified: October 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Patient reported outcomes; Vulnerable population; Chronic illness; Patient activation and engagement; Accountable Care Organizations; Comparison of approaches
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Cardiovascular Diseases
• Other Study ID Numbers: IHS-1310-06821

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO