John Snow, Inc. to Study How Healthcare Innovations Spread in Primary Care

BOSTON, Oct. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- John Snow, Inc. (JSI) announced today that it will work with Penobscot Community Health Care in Bangor, Maine, to evaluate the center's efforts in spreading an interdisciplinary care team approach—called a delegate model—to five of its service sites.

The work is part of a five-year award from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ's) ACTION II initiative intended to help organizations accelerate change and take them to scale. JSI's ACTION II Safety Net Partnership includes community health centers, family planning providers, other safety net providers, professional associations, and university-based research centers.

"Figuring out how organizations implement change is essential for reforming our health system and improving quality of care," says JSI's principal investigator Susan Grantham. "This evaluation, through ACTION II and with Penobscot Community Health Care, will add to this knowledge."

JSI president Joel Lamstein said, "We place a high priority on this work at JSI as it is consistent with our mission of improving health services for underserved populations, and conducting research that has a direct application to the field."

The delegate model of interdisciplinary care teams includes careful examination and redistribution of the roles of each team member to improve efficiency. Introducing interdisciplinary care teams is one method to address shortages in primary care access and the current heavy workload of primary care providers.

For more information, please contact Susan Grantham 
JSI media contact: Julie Cortesi: 401 314 6050

SOURCE John Snow, Inc.