Stephen M. Shortell, PhD, MPH, MBA

Health systems may be better able to support adoption of chronic care management processes, which have a strong evidence base for practice implementation, compared with patient engagement strategies, which have less evidence to guide effective implementation.

Small practices reduced their use of telemedicine during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Technical support may help expand and maintain telemedicine in small practices.

This is the first national study to examine the relationship between healthcare system organizational characteristics and adoption of advanced health information technology capabilities.

Physician practices intending to join Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) in 2012 had greater capabilities in health information technology, care management processes, and quality improvement methods than those not intending to join, but they still were far from using all recommended behaviors to manage risk.

The University of Best Practices physician organization learning collaborative in San Diego County was associated with lower hospitalization rates for heart attacks.

Reports suggest that hospitals are acquiring physician practices. Data from 3 large surveys showed increased use of care management processes when hospital acquired practices.

Patients with diabetes that are cared for by primary care teams with higher cohesion experienced greater EHR-related outcome improvements, compared with patients cared for by lower cohesion teams.

The authors find 51% of accountable care organizations have private payer contracts, which are more likely than public contracts to include downside risk and upfront payments.

This study examines the clinical effects of care management and quality improvement interventions implemented by physician groups on pay-for-performance success.