Complex care stakeholders across the nation are committed to finding new ways to measure quality and impact of complex care programs, ways that incorporate the holistic goals of caring for individuals with complex health and social needs. The Blueprint for Complex Care and Measuring Complexity, seminal reports in the complex care field, highlighted the need to include consumers in evaluating their own care and to identify metrics besides cost and utilization. Over the last few years, there have been several initiatives that have explored and identified promising practices in complex care measurement.

The Center for Health Care Strategies and Joslyn Levy & Associates presented on their recent Measures Library, developed to support Advancing Integrated Models pilot sites to assess the impact of their complex care interventions. Presenters also discussed how these patient- and staff-reported measures were developed and how they can augment existing outcome measures. Representatives from two pilot sites – Boston Medical Center: Center for The Urban Child and Healthy Family (UCHF) in Massachusetts and Hill Country Health and Wellness Center in Northern California —shared their experiences and lessons in incorporating measures from the library into measurement strategies for their complex care models. This work was made possible by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers’ National Center for Complex Health and Social Needs presented findings from a recent report focusing on implementation of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in complex care programs. The findings included recommendations to implement PROMs in a way that incorporates person-centered measurement principles and maximizes their utility to enhance quality measurement. National Consumer Scholar Janice Tufte discussed her experience on various quality measurement initiatives as a patient stakeholder and subject matter expert.

Presenters

• Rebecca Sax, MPH, Senior Program Manager, Camden Coalition
• Janice Tufte, Public-Patient Involved Stakeholder, National Consumer Scholar, PCORI Ambassador
• Karla Silverman, MS, RN, CNM, Associate Director for Complex Care Delivery, Center for Health Care Strategies
• Joslyn Levy, BSN, MPH, Principal, Joslyn Levy & Associates
• Carey Howard, MPH, Program Director, Center for the Urban Child and Healthy Family at Boston Medical Center
• Susan Foster, MSN, FNP-BC, Chief Medical Officer, Hill Country Health and Wellness Center
• Jo Campbell, ACSW, CWWS, Integrated Operations Director, Hill Country Health & Wellness Center

Additional resources

• Assessing the impact of complex care models: Opportunities to fill in the gaps
• Person-centered implementation of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMS) in complex care programs