AHRQ Launches New Online Resource To Help Primary Care Practices Implement Evidence

Tools for Change, a new resource from AHRQ’s EvidenceNOW project, is designed to help primary care practices and practice facilitators search among 100 tools and resources to increase their use of evidence and improve patient care. A quality improvement framework—the EvidenceNOW Key Driver Diagram—helps users to target change strategies such as selecting and customizing the best evidence, creating and supporting high functioning teams, and engaging patients and families in evidence-based care. Tools for Change is an outgrowth of EvidenceNOW, an initiative launched in 2015 that used practice facilitators to work with more than 1,500 small- and medium-sized primary care practices nationwide to improve heart health.

EvidenceNOW Tools for Change

A Curated Collection for Practices and Practice Facilitators

The EvidenceNOW Model for supporting primary care practice improvement originated from a multiyear AHRQ grant initiative designed to advance the adoption of clinical and organizational evidence in small- and medium-sized primary care practices. AHRQ seeks to spread the EvidenceNOW Model by sharing carefully selected tools and resources used in EvidenceNOW* and other quality improvement (QI) initiatives. EvidenceNOW Tools for Change can help primary care practices, as well as practice facilitators and others who support practices, make changes to build their capacity to engage in quality improvement and implement the best evidence.

EvidenceNOW Key Driver Diagram

AHRQ uses a key driver diagram to show what practices need to do to achieve the aim of successfully translating evidence into improved care. The key driver diagram consists of six key drivers – big changes that practices make to keep pace with changing evidence. For each key driver there are several change strategies – specific actions that support the achievement of that key driver. Here you can access over 100 EvidenceNOW Tools for Change to help practices implement these change strategies. The tools and resources are useful to practice leaders, clinicians, and other practice staff, as well as to practice facilitators and other quality improvement professionals. Learn more about the EvidenceNOW Key Driver Diagram and access associated EvidenceNOW Tools for Change here.

EvidenceNOW Tools for Change for Practice Facilitators

Group of women sitting around a table in discussion

This set of tools and resources is specifically for practice facilitators and quality improvement professionals working with primary care practices. These resources, which can be accessed here, are organized in three sections:

Engaging Practices covers how a practice facilitator begins working with a practice.
Quality Improvement Work covers the nuts and bolts of working with practices to improve the quality of care.
Administrative Tools covers ways of tracking practices’ progress and documenting facilitators’ work.

* The following EvidenceNOW grantees generously contributed tools and resources to this collection:

Healthy Hearts in the Heartland (Midwest Cooperative)
Healthy Hearts NYC (New York City Cooperative)
Heart Health Now! Advancing Heart Health in NC Primary Care (North Carolina Cooperative)
Healthy Hearts Northwest (Northwest Cooperative)
Healthy Hearts for Oklahoma (Oklahoma Cooperative)
EvidenceNOW Southwest (Southwest Cooperative)
Heart of Virginia Healthcare (Virginia Cooperative)
Evaluating System Change to Advance Learning and Take Evidence to Scale (ESCALATES) (National Evaluation Team)

Page last reviewed October 2018
Page originally created October 2016

Internet Citation: EvidenceNOW Tools for Change. Content last reviewed October 2018. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/evidencenow/tools/index.html