This groundbreaking project explored alternatives to the current ways providers assess and manage pain to better calibrate pain assessment with opioid prescribing. This effort, which was driven by members of MHQP’s Consumer Health Council, sought to involve patients in improving the traditional 10-point scale to assess pain.
Working with Mad*Pow,
This multi-year improvement effort gave the state a unique opportunity to rally organizations interested in improving pediatric healthcare quality to pursue shared goals. MHQP’s role included:
In 2012, MHQP partnered with Consumer Reports, which, for the first time in its history, published patient experience ratings of primary care physician groups in a special version of the magazine for distribution to its subscribers and newsstands in Massachusetts.
MHQP led the Greater Boston coalition for Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q), The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s multipronged effort to lift the overall quality of health care in communities across the nation. Boston was one of 16 communities selected to participate. This endeavor focused on three areas:
Launched in 2011, MHQP’s Consumer Health
This project piloted a short form and electronic mode of MHQP’s annual patient experience survey to evaluate the efficacy of new methodological approaches in future iterations of the survey. MHQP created, fielded and analyzed responses to a short form survey instrument that is considerably shorter than the standard PCMH CG-CAHPS 2.01 patient experience survey in use at
MHQP helped create and convened a coalition of nearly 50 Massachusetts-based organizations, which served as a neutral convener of child health stakeholders in the state, advocated for improved child health care quality and measurement, and facilitated a shared understanding of pediatric healthcare quality priorities across Massachusetts.
The CHQC focused on promoting effective communication and care coordination for children
MHQP brought together providers and payers from across Massachusetts to collectively identify, evaluate and take action on variations in practice patterns related to how specialty providers treat patients for similar conditions. Practice pattern variation analysis (PPVA) is an approach to understand unexplained and sometimes unwarranted provider variation in care that may negatively impact quality and cost.
MHQP worked
MHQP led the Massachusetts implementation of a national initiative focused on incorporating evidence-based screening tools and early intervention services for depression and unhealthy alcohol and substance use into routine primary care for adults in the primary care office setting.
The goal of the Partners in Integrated Care (PIC) model of care was to increase the identification and treatment
MHQP was selected by the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council to create a three-year plan for publicly reporting quality and cost measures on the Council’s consumer-facing website (no longer active).
Areas investigated for the reporting plan included:
MHQP oversaw the implementation of a field test of a new version of the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Services Clinician & Group Survey (CG-CAHPS), specifically designed to evaluate Patient-Centered Medical Homes (PCMHs).
MHQP managed the recruitment of practices to participate in the field test; executed data use agreements with participating practices; developed the survey protocol, sampling