Primary care is the foundation for health and well-being. Yet strengthening and improving primary care is complex. Providers manage large caseloads and can struggle to keep up with the latest evidence-based practices and implement them when they’re needed. In addition, as demographics change and many healthcare providers retire, a new generation of care providers is needed and must be equipped to help meet the demands of today and tomorrow. The Abt Global team can help federal agencies, states, health care providers, and other organizations with a wide array of primary care system needs, including quality improvement, data collection, analysis, policy recommendations, dissemination, and translational science.
Capabilities
Abt is a leading provider of evidence-based research, evaluation, and technical assistance to strengthen capacity in primary healthcare. Our teams of clinicians, evaluators, technical assistance providers, economists, health communicators, and data analysts take an interdisciplinary approach to support clients as their needs shift and technologies change.
RESEARCH, MONITORING, & EVALUATION
- Randomized experiments
- Quasi-experimental designs
- Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methodologies
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE & IMPLEMENTATION
- Program implementation support (including quality measurement)
- Public reporting support
- Provider training
- Federal rulemaking support
- Communications & dissemination
Relevant Experience
Dissemination and Stakeholder Engagement Support for AHRQ's National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research (NCEPCR)
Client: AHRQ
AHRQ has made significant investments in research to understand how to improve primary care. Initiatives include research training, practice-based research networks, medical homes, behavioral health integration, transformation, and large quality improvement efforts. Abt is partnering with AHRQ’s National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research (NCEPCR) to advance primary care research through dissemination and engagement of what works in primary care. To date, the work has included both broad and targeted outreach to primary care and healthcare audiences through a webinar series, newsletters, blogs, social media, and a report about AHRQ’s recent investments in primary care research.
National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Pipeline Readiness Technical Assistance
Client: HRSA, Bureau of Health Workforce
The demand for healthcare services in the U.S. is outpacing the number of care providers, and projections show that trend continuing into the future, exacerbating an overstretched healthcare system. Worse still, the communities most in need are typically those with the fewest primary healthcare providers, and those providers are more likely to leave because their limited resources present an overwhelming challenge to treating patients. HRSA contracted with Abt and the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved to strengthen and retain primary healthcare providers in rural and unserved communities through the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) pipeline programs. Abt uses its expertise in training and digital technologies to provide technical assistance.
Reducing Maternal Health Disparities (QIF-MH)
Client: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Bureau of Primary Health Care
An Abt Global-led team provides technical assistance and evaluation services to 36 HRSA-supported health centers implementing innovative approaches to holistic, patient-centric maternal care. In support to HRSA’s Quality Improvement Fund – Maternal Health, the Abt team includes HealthBegins and the MoMMA’s (Maternal Mortality & Morbidity Advocates) Voices program of the Preeclampsia Foundation. Together, we partner with health centers as they develop sustainable, scalable, and cost-effective care models that can address individuals’ clinical, behavioral, and social needs—from housing and food to transportation and safety—that impact maternal health.
Support to AHRQ’s Primary Care Quality Improvement Initiative
Client: AHRQ
Under AHRQ’s EvidenceNOW Building State Capacity project, Abt led technical assistance and evaluation efforts for a program aimed at addressing heart health in primary care for states with the highest rates of heart disease and stroke. Our technical assistance work has included developing a learning community through virtual convenings and one-on-one coaching support for grantees. Abt also developed an eLearning course for quality improvement. Additional support included designing and conducting an evaluation of individual grantees and the overall grant initiative and developing a “how-to guide” for states to create multi-stakeholder coalitions to provide healthcare extension services.
Managing Opioid Use and Misuse in Older Adults
Client: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Older adults are twice as likely as the general population to have pain, and clinicians often rely on opioid treatment. As a result, opioid use, misuse, and opioid use disorder have increased among older adults. Abt is working with the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute to conduct a national survey of primary care providers who treat older adults. The goals are to identify best practices and produce a Federal Registry Notice that includes the practices that treat pain while lowering the risks of opioid use and misuse. The team will also support a learning collaborative that will implement tools and resources.
Evaluating Medicaid’s Innovation Accelerator Program (IAP)
Client: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
CMS sought to improve care for Medicare and Medicaid recipients and promote efficiency through the IAP, which offered technical assistance to state Medicaid agencies. As the IAP rolled out, Abt conducted an evaluation using a qualitative approach supplemented by descriptive statistics. The goal was to understand how state Medicaid agency participants engaged with, learned from, and applied the IAP’s technical assistance to improve their Medicaid health care delivery systems. Abt’s analysis showed the IAP helped build state officials’ knowledge base and skills related to delivery system reform efforts.
A Clinical Quality Improvement Implementation Package for Large Healthcare Systems: Activities to Support Guideline Dissemination and Implementation
Client: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Abt assists with putting CDC’s “Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain” into practice by developing measures and tools for safer opioid prescribing. Abt and partners are developing quality improvement (QI) measures for long-term opioid therapy; developing a QI implementation package to promote safer and more effective care of patients on long-term opioid therapy; and supporting implementation of a learning collaborative to facilitate QI efforts in six large healthcare systems.
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