Building Team-based Primary Care: Lessons From an Academic-Community Network Partnership.

Area of Science:

• Primary Care
• Health Services Research
• Team-Based Care Implementation

Background:

• Team-based care is crucial for high-quality healthcare.
• Transitioning to team-based care requires significant process changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement and evaluate an academic-community partnership.
• To improve team-based care in primary care settings for vulnerable populations.
• Utilized a structured change package and implementation support.

Main Methods:

• Developed a six-strategy structured change package.
• Designed comprehensive implementation support.
• Evaluated progress using an assessment scale bi-annually.

Main Results:

• Practices showed improvement in all care-team functions.
• Significant gains were observed in population management.
• Improvements were also noted in planned care and patient empanelment.

Conclusions:

• Academic-community partnerships can effectively improve team-based care.
• Evidence-based practice supports yield measurable improvements.
• Vulnerable populations benefit from enhanced primary care team functions.