Partnership Snapshots
ACTION II is a model of field-based research designed to promote innovation in health care delivery by accelerating the diffusion of research into practice. The ACTION II network includes 17 large partnerships and more than 350 collaborating organizations that provide health care to an estimated 50 percent of the U.S. population.
Information about ACTION II's partnerships is summarized in this fact sheet.
Select for more information about ACTION II.
Prime Organization/Partnership Name: Abt Associates, Inc.
Principal Investigator: Andrea Hassol, MSPH (andrea_hassol@abtassoc.com)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: The Abt team is dedicated to developing health care innovations across the continuum of care, based on the best available information, including information from electronic health records, testing these innovations in diverse rural and minority communities, and disseminating the results through public and professional education and outreach. Abt previously participated in ACTION through an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract, and its two collaborating integrated delivery networks, Partners Healthcare and Geisinger Clinics, are augmented for ACTION II by a focus on rural and long-term care (University of North Carolina Sheps Center) and service to minority communities (University of North Carolina, University of Alabama at Birmingham). The Joint Commission enhances the team's focus on patient safety with the capacity to coordinate tests at multiple institutions and take proven innovations to scale. The team excels in Web-based and traditional media for consumer and provider education (Advise & Consent, Inc., Relyon Media), with a special emphasis on outreach to minority communities (Biotechnical Communications). Other partners enhance methodological depth (MetaResearch) and primary data collection capacity (Abt SRBI, Inc.).
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located:
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Alabama.
Partnership Members: Abt SRBI, Inc.; Advise & Consent, Inc.; Biotechnical Communications; Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Geisinger Health System; MetaResearch; Partners Healthcare; Relyon Media; Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina; The Joint Commission.
Prime Organization/Partnership Name: American Institutes for Research (AIR)
Principal Investigator: Kristin Carman, PhD (kcarman@air.org)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: The strength of the AIR team is the many levels of diversity of the partnerships. The partnerships span diverse provider types and multiple geographical areas. In addition, the team represents diversity in the types of services provided and its varied organizational structures. The AIR team also has several individuals who are experts in measures development. AIR and its seven partnering organizations are able to provide the clinical settings, data, and research and communication expertise needed for small-scale proof-of-concept studies; large, geographically diverse empirical studies; and widespread dissemination of findings. The team is composed of an array of experts in numerous disciplines within health services and clinical research, including quality of care, patient safety, consumer engagement, delivery system organization, economics and financing, and health insurance.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located:
All States except those on the west coast.
Partnership Members: Adventist Health System; Carilion Clinic; Mayo Clinic; Texas A&M University System Health Science Center; TMF Health Quality Institute; Urban Institute; Virtua.
Prime Organization/Partnership Name: Battelle Memorial Institute
Principal Investigator: Diane Manninen, PhD (manninen@battelle.org)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: Battelle has built a partnership that can significantly advance AHRQ's understanding of innovative health care delivery for women and children (as well as other populations, as appropriate), deliver scientifically defensible results critical for acceptance of innovation, and provide access to a national clinical population required to effectively bring innovations to scale. The Battelle partnership includes large and diverse health care delivery systems that together serve more than 3 million patients, including more than 1.7 million children and significant numbers of rural, low-income, and minority patients. Services include acute inpatient, ambulatory, and specialty clinics and primary care—the range of practice that determines health care for children and women. Battelle is also geographically and culturally diverse, providing the opportunity for understanding regional and cultural differences in the effectiveness of innovations.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located:
Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas.
Partnership Members: Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute; Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children's Hospital; Children's Healthcare of Atlanta; Children's Medical Center-Dallas; Duke University-Duke Clinical Research Institute; Emory University; Nationwide Children's Hospital; Ohio State University; Saint Louis University; Texas Children's Health Plan; Texas Children's Hospital; Texas Children's Pediatric Associates; University of Arizona; University of Miami; University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; Washington University.
Prime Organization: Billings Clinic
Partnership Name: The Quality Commons
Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Ciemins, PhD, MPH (eciemins@billingsclinic.org)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: The Quality Commons seeks to improve the health of Americans by using its collective wisdom, relationships, diverse capabilities, and a complexity science framework to solve intractable health care challenges and transform patient care. The Quality Commons believes complexity science provides profound new insights into the organizational and system dynamics that underlie quality, safety, and patient care and is committed to bringing complexity science-based insights, questions, and approaches to ACTION II research initiatives and the operation of its network. The Quality Commons began meeting as a network in March 2010 and includes as partners some of the country's leading complexity scientists and health services researchers.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located:
Montana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Jersey, Maine, Minnesota, and Kentucky.
Partnership Members: Albert Einstein Healthcare Network; Cabin Creek Health Systems; Maine Medical Center; Park Nicollet Institute; Plexus Institute; The Center for Family, Community and Social Justice; University of Louisville Medical Center.
Prime Organization: Boston University
Partnership Name: Safety Net ACTION Partnership II (SNAP II)
Principal Investigator: Carol VanDeusen Lukas, EdD (cvlukas@bu.edu)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: As a small partnership focused on safety net systems and targeted geographically in the Northeast, SNAP II is committed to excellence and improvement in serving vulnerable populations. Building on an established and effective research and service delivery partnership created for ACTION, SNAP II will continue the most active core of the partnership, strengthen it with two new partners, and maintain the flexibility to expand the network as needed to respond to specific ACTION II task orders. As complex safety net systems, SNAP II service delivery partners serve large numbers of vulnerable populations, including the poor, elderly, and uninsured, as well as persons with disabilities and racial/ethnic minorities.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located:
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Partnership Members: Boston Medical Center; Cambridge Health Alliance; Commonwealth Care Alliance; Montefiore Medical Center; VA New England Healthcare System.
Prime Organization: CNA
Partnership Name: CNA Health ACTION Partnership (CHAP)
Principal Investigator: Dan Harris, PhD (harrisd@cna.org)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: CHAP brings together health services and practice-based researchers with innovative, data-driven health care providers and integrated delivery systems that serve a broad range of patient populations, are national in scope, and have a special emphasis and focus on primary care; low-income, minority, and rural priority populations; and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Region 3. CHAP providers serve inner-city urban, metropolitan suburban, rural, and frontier communities and populations. Its clinical settings include tertiary care regional referral medical centers, community hospitals, long-term care facilities, and primary care practices.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located: Focal region is DHHS Region 3 (Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, and Virginia); also South Dakota, Minnesota, Oregon, a partnership of primary care practices and a Regional Health Information Organization in Colorado, and a national research network and other affiliated primary care practices with locations in all States except Wyoming and Hawaii.
Partnership Members: American Academy of Family Physicians, National Research Network; Avera; Carilion Clinic; Christiana Care Health Services; Collaboration Communication; Delmarva Foundation; Guthrie Health; KZO Innovations; Lehigh Valley Health Network; MedStar Health Research Institute; Milliman; National Committee for Quality Assurance; Oregon Health & Science University; Olmsted Medical Center; Palladian Partners; Primary Care Partners; Quality Healthcare Network; Thomas Jefferson University; Virginia Tech.
Prime Organization/Partnership Name: George Washington University (GWU)
Principal Investigator: Marsha Regenstein, PhD (marsha.regenstein@gwumc.edu)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: The GWU partnership reflects a commitment to the safety net with a central focus on understanding, improving, and integrating care within and across different settings for low-income, vulnerable populations. Its network is organized into 10 regional hubs, which represent groups of partners in 10 locations across the country. The 10 hubs allow GWU to study issues related to care coordination and care management, quality of care for complex patients, delivery of services to underserved patients in all stages of the life cycle, effectiveness of health information technology for managing and assessing patient care, and quality indicators among underserved and vulnerable patients in safety net settings.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located: New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Michigan, Illinois, Arizona, Nevada, California, and Hawaii.
Partnership Members: Access Community Health Network; Affinity Health Plan; Albany Area Primary Health Care; American College of Emergency Physicians; Arizona State University/Center for Health Information and Research; Association for Community Affiliated Plans; Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations; Carondelet Health Network; Clinica Msr. Oscar A. Romero; Clinical Directors Network; Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health; Community Health and Social Services; Community Health Center Network; Detroit Wayne County Health Authority; El Rio Community Health Center; George Washington University Department of Health Policy; Health and Hospitals Corporation of New York City; Health Federation of Philadelphia; Health Plus; Henry Ford Health System; Institute for Family Health; Lutheran Family Health Center; Memorial Healthcare System; Metro Plus; Migrant Clinicians Network; Morehouse University/National Center for Primary Care; National Association of Community Health Centers; National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems; National Rural Health Association; Nevada Health Centers; North County Health Services; RCHN Community Health Foundation; Redwood Community Health Coalition; San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium; San Francisco Health Plan; Southeast Regional Clinicians' Network; St. Louis Integrated Health Network; University of California, San Francisco Department of Family and Community Medicine; United Hospital Fund; University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center; Washington University/Barnes Jewish Hospital; San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center; University of Chicago.
Prime Organization/Partnership Name: Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET)
Principal Investigator: Steve Hines, PhD (shines3@aha.org)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: The HRET partnership is focused on issues of quality, safety, payment reform, and care coordination that are hospital-based or in which hospitals play a key role. Its partnership expertise lies in testing innovations within systems, data analysis, and the broad dissemination and sustainability of innovations once their value has been established. Its team consists of three distinct member types: state hospital associations and other outreach groups, health systems, and academic and commercial partners. Founded in 1944, HRET is the private, nonprofit affiliate of the American Hospital Association (AHA) and is devoted to research, education, and demonstration programs addressing health care delivery issues. Through its affiliation with AHA, HRET accesses valuable resources, data, and thought leadership, yet maintains the autonomy needed to examine issues independently and objectively.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Partnership Members: Alabama Hospital Association; Allina; American Hospital Association; Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association; Arkansas Hospital Association; Baycare; Baylor University; Baystate; Beth Israel Medical Center; Booz Allen Hamilton; California Hospital Association; Catholic Healthcare Partners; Colorado Hospital Association; Connecticut Hospital Association; Florida Hospital Association; Georgia Hospital Association; Harvard University Medical School; Hawaii Hospital Association; Hospital Corporation of America; Idaho Hospital Association; Illinois Hospital Association; Indiana Hospital Association; Iowa Health System; Iowa Hospital Association; Kansas Hospital Association; Lehigh Valley Health Network; Louisiana Hospital Association; Maryland Hospital Association; Massachusetts Hospital Association; Michigan Hospital Association; Minnesota Hospital Association; Missouri Hospital Association; National Association of Children's Hospitals; Nevada Hospital Association and Related Institutions; New Hampshire Hospital Association; New Jersey Hospital Association; New York Hospital Association; North Carolina Hospital Association; Ohio Hospital Association; Ohio State University; Oklahoma Hospital Association; Oregon Hospital Association; Pennsylvania Hospital Association; Rush University Medical Center; Sentara Healthcare; Sharp Healthcare; South Carolina Hospital Association; South Dakota Hospital Association; Tennessee Hospital Association; Texas Hospital Association; University of Massachusetts Memorial Healthcare; University of Washington; University of Michigan; Utah Hospital Association; Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association; Washington Hospital Association; West Virginia Hospital Association; Wisconsin Hospital Association; Wyoming Hospital Association.
Prime Organization/Partnership Name: Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
Principal Investigator: Don Goldmann, MD (dgoldmann@ihi.org)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: IHI is an agile nonprofit organization with a 20-year track record in developing, testing, and spreading innovative health care designs. IHI views the ACTION II initiative as an ideal opportunity to demonstrate that innovation, implementation, dissemination, and shared learning are accelerated by bringing together diverse organizations with a broad range of skills and competencies to focus on major quality, safety, and value challenges. Strategic and rigorous yet pragmatic implementation and evaluation will be required to maximize the impact of health care reform. Only by working together can America understand, integrate, and rapidly improve the fragmented health care system that too often delivers substandard, inappropriate care while escalating unsustainable health care costs. With the contributions of its experienced and broadly capable collaborators, IHI believes it will bring to ACTION II a unique test bed for health care innovations.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Partnership Members: Ascension Health; Brigham and Women's Hospital Center of Excellence for Patient Safety Research and Practice; Cambridge Health Alliance; Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center; Contra Costa Regional Medical Center; Harvard University School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management; Harvard Vanguard; Iowa Healthcare Collaborative; North Carolina Center for Hospital Quality and Patient Safety; North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System; Sentara Healthcare; University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Prime Organization: Intermountain Healthcare
Partnership Name: Health Care Delivery in ACTION II
Principal Investigator: Lucy A. Savitz, PhD, MBA (lucy.savitz@imail.org)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: Intermountain and its health system partners are faced with a myriad of issues and challenges as well as the unique opportunity to test and innovate across the full care continuum as leading learning organizations. Its mission focus—helping to transform health care delivery in the United States through innovation and building the evidence base for change and improvement—aims to provide the best possible care at the lowest possible cost. As a practice-based research network that includes industry leaders, Intermountain is uniquely positioned to provide timely and relevant work that has high operational utility and maximum likelihood for spread. In addition to its eight named member organizations, Intermountain has 16 additional loosely affiliated partners, including three Clinical and Translational Science Award recipients. Intermountain has purposefully chosen not to limit its partnership focus to a single topical area because the nature of mission critical research calls for it to examine a broad range of challenges and issues that will shift in priority over the 3- to 5-year award period. Its vision is to support AHRQ through breadth and depth of organizational partnership and local affiliations.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located:
Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Partnership Members: Baylor Health Care System; Colorado Health Outcomes Program; Denver Health; Mayo Clinic; Providence Health and Services; VA Medical Center Denver; VA Medical Center Salt Lake City.
Prime Organization: Johns Hopkins University Quality and Safety Research Group
Partnership Name: Quality and Safety Research Group (QSRG) ACTION II
Principal Investigator: Peter J. Pronovost, MD, PhD (ppronovo@jhmi.edu)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: The vision of QSRG ACTION II is to unite top implementation science researchers with provider organizations committed to measuring quality, so that it may find the often elusive balance between research that is scientifically sound yet practical enough to be scalable across the United States and standardized measures and methods and context sensitive local modification of interventions. To make progress in the next decade, the health care industry must be guided by science, work together, be accountable for transparently and validly measuring results, and encourage innovation among providers and insurers. The mission of QSRG ACTION II is to advance the science of practice-based implementation research, improve the quality and safety of care, and reduce preventable morbidity, mortality, and costs of care. The QSRG ACTION II partnership is comprised of world-class health services researchers capable of conducting research that can improve quality and safety in both inpatient and outpatient areas, for both adult and pediatric patients, using a variety of research methods and policy levers.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located:
Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.
Partnership Members: American Society of Anesthesiologists; Arkansas Hospital Association; Blue Cross Blue Shield of America; Connecticut Hospital Association; Consumers Advancing Patient Safety; Consumers Union; ECRI Institute; Florida Hospital Association; Georgia Hospital Association; Health Science Informatics Research Training; Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research; Johns Hopkins Health Services Research and Development Center; Johns Hopkins School of Nursing; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Johns Hopkins Community Physicians; Johns Hopkins Health Care; Johns Hopkins School of Public Health DEcIDE Network; Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Quality and Safety; Massachusetts General Hospital Center of Excellence for Patient Safety; Michigan Health & Hospital Association Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality; MDLogix; Missouri Hospital Association; National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions; Oregon Association of Hospital and Health Systems; Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America; Society of Critical Care Medicine; Tennessee Center for Patient Safety; Association of Professionals in Infection Control; Canadian Patient Safety Institute; Center for Innovations; Foundation for Health Communities; Institute for Healthcare Optimization (New Hampshire Hospital Association); Institute for Safe Medication Practices; Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions; The Joint Commission; Johns Hopkins Evidence-Based Practice Center; Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory; Josie King Foundation; Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute; Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists, St. Michael's Hospital; Anesthesia Foundation; University Health System Consortium; University of Maryland School of Nursing; VA Center for Implementation Practice; VA National Center for Patient Safety and Research and Support; Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research; Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine; Health Systems Management; National Patient Safety Agency; University of Michigan Health System; University of Michigan School of Public Health; VA Patient Safety Evidence-Based Practice Center; University of Wisconsin—Madison, School of Industrial and Systems Engineering; University of Central Florida, Human Systems Integration Research, Institute for Simulation and Training; Wisconsin Hospital Association; World Health Organization Patient Safety Programme.
Prime Organization: John Snow, Inc.
Partnership Name: Safety Net Partnership (SNP)
Principal Investigator: Susan Grantham, PhD, MPP (sgrantham@jsi.com)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: The purpose of SNP is to improve the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of primary care services delivered to populations who are socio-economically disadvantaged and/or have difficulty accessing or engaging in health care. This is achieved by conducting practice-based research in the areas of health information technology, innovations and emerging issues, prevention and care management, and health care value. Furthermore, the purpose of SNP is to improve the nationwide safety net system and health services delivery overall through sharing and disseminating knowledge gained through this research. Out of the SNP's approximately 2.5 million patients served, 57 percent are low-income (using the proxy measure of Medicaid insured plus uninsured); 24 percent self-report as racial minorities; 54 percent self-report as Hispanic/Latino ethnicity; 9 percent live in rural communities; and 72 percent of their provider organizations use electronic health records.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located:
California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
Partnership Members: Bailit Health Purchasing, LLC; Big Sandy Health Care, Inc.; Boston Medical Center; Butte Family Planning; California State Rural Health Association; Center for Managing Chronic Disease; Center for Rural Health, University of North Dakota; Community Health Center Association of Connecticut; Children's Health Fund; Clinica Family Health Services; Colorado Community Managed Care Network; Community Care Alliance; Community Health Access Network; Council of Community Clinics in San Diego; Family Planning Councils of America; Full Circle Projects, Inc.; Harbor Health Services; Laramie Reproductive Health; Maine Primary Care Association; Metro Community Provider Network; Migrant Clinicians Network; National Committee for Quality Assurance; New England Rural; Health RoundTable; North Colorado Health Alliance, Inc.; Penobscot Community Health Care; Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts; Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County; Sacopee Valley Health Center; San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium; Shawnee Health Service; Health Imperatives, Inc.; Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies at Tufts Medical Center; Indiana Primary Health Care Association; South Boston Community Health Center; South Carolina Primary Health Care Association; Teller County Public Health; United Neighborhood Health Services; Valley-Wide Health Systems; Wyoming Primary Care Association.
Prime Organization: Kaiser Permanente
Partnership Name: HMO Research Network (HMORN) Community Provider Network Partnership
Principal Investigator: Julie Schmittdiel, PhD (julie.a.schmittdiel@kp.org)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: HMORN is a 15-year-old consortium of geographically diverse U.S. health plans with integrated research divisions committed to advancing population health through its work with more than 10 million health plan members. The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), in partnership with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute (PAMFRI) and the Sutter Health Institute for Research and Evaluation (SHIRE) participated in AHRQ's original ACTION network as the UCSF/PAMFRI/SHIRE Partnership. HMORN, UCSF, PAMFRI, and SHIRE have now joined together to create the HMORN Community Provider Network Partnership, a diverse ACTION II network with a long history of successful practice-based implementation research partnerships with clinicians, health care organizations, and other key stakeholders.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located:
California, Pennsylvania, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Georgia, New Mexico, and Israel.
Partnership Members: Geisinger Clinic; Group Health Cooperative; Harvard Pilgrim Health Care; HealthPartners; Henry Ford Health System; Kaiser Permanente Colorado; Kaiser Permanente Hawaii; Kaiser Permanente Northern California; Kaiser Permanente Northwest; Kaiser Permanente Southeast; Lovelace Health System; Maccabi Healthcare Services; Meyers Primary Care Institute/Fallon Clinic; University of California, San Francisco; Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute; Sutter Health Institute for Research and Education.
Prime Organization: The Lewin Group
Partnership Name: The Lewin Partnership
Principal Investigator: Carol Simon, PhD (carol.simon@lewin.com)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: The Lewin Partnership is focused on improving the health care of children and reaching the underserved. Its research-ready team brings unique data assets and analytic capabilities that can reduce dependence on primary data collection and provide an evidence base for generalizing study findings. Its team also brings extensive expertise in knowledge transfer and dissemination and communication strategies and has access to a number of dissemination vehicles through its partners. Through the Lewin Group's sister company, i3 Innovus, it has access to data on more than 70 million patients that can provide a basis for generalization, measuring current state and establishing a pre-implementation baseline, and extending data beyond the study intervention period. Each of its provider partners has electronic medical records systems that will support practice-based implementation research data and analysis efforts. The team includes two large national employers, and the Lewin Partnership hopes to leverage their capabilities in promoting the health of employees and their families, implementing wellness initiatives and disseminating best practices across their workplaces.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located:
Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and District of Columbia.
Partnership Members: Children's National Medical Center; Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center; Delta Airlines; National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality; Nemours; Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality; ON24; Oregon Health & Science University; REDA International; Target Corporation; American Academy of Pediatrics; Vermont Child Health Improvement Program.
Prime Organization/Partnership Name: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Principal Investigator: Arnold Chen, MD, MSc (achen@mathematica-mpr.com)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: The Mathematica-led partnership includes a diverse array of providers and provider organizations spanning a range of acute, ambulatory care, and long-term care settings that has particular expertise in care coordination for the chronically ill. Its partnership includes hospitals, integrated delivery systems, academic medical centers, hospices, and primary care providers, and it provides care around the country. In addition to health care providers, the Mathematica partnership includes professional societies, provider organizations, practice-based research networks, and experts in rapid-cycle evaluation. The partnership's joint focus has been on care coordination for the chronically ill, but individual partners' expertise extends well beyond this particular topic.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located:
South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nevada, New York City, Chicago, central Texas, and east-central Illinois.
Partnership Members: American College of Physicians; Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center; Burness Communications; Jewish Home Lifecare; Oregon Health & Science University; Partners in Care Foundation; Rush University Medical Center; Scott & White Healthcare; Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence; University of Illinois at Chicago; Special Needs Plan Alliance.
Prime Organization/Partnership Name: RAND
Principal Investigator: Robin Weinick, PhD (rweinick@rand.org)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: The RAND Partnership is designed to effectively respond to ACTION II requests for task orders related to four of AHRQ's Portfolios: Health Information Technology, Patient Safety, Prevention and Care Management, and Value. Within these broad topic areas, RAND is well positioned to place special emphasis on two of AHRQ's priority populations—individuals belonging to racial/ethnic minorities and low-income groups. The partnership will function as a learning organization focused on improving care and outcomes in specific regions and organizations, and its configuration highlights its ability to conduct practice-based implementation research in a diverse array of care settings, including primary care practices, community health centers, hospitals, and communities. In order to enhance its capacity to conduct practice-based implementation and effectively spread promising practices, RAND has added to its original ACTION partnership numerous new community-based partner organizations that are directly involved in implementing changes and improvement at the local and community level, as well as spreading the most promising practices to their peers and beyond.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located:
California, Wisconsin, and Missouri.
Partnership Members: American Health Information Management Association Foundation; Annenberg Center for Health Sciences/Eisenhower Medical Center; Aurora Health Care; California Association of Physician Groups; California Chronic Care Coalition; California Medical Association Foundation; California Quality Collaborative; California Universities; Center for Health Policy, University of Missouri; Consumers Advancing Patient Safety; ECRI Institute; Health Literacy Missouri; Humana; Integrated Healthcare Association; LA Net; Lumetra Healthcare Solutions; Molina Healthcare; Partners in Care Foundation; Pharmacy Foundation of California; Right Care Initiative; University HealthSystem Consortium; Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality.
Prime Organization/Partnership Name: Research Triangle Institute International (RTI)
Principal Investigator: Douglas Kamerow, MD, MPH (dkamerow@rti.org)
Partnership Mission, Niche, and/or Goals: The mission of RTI's ACTION II partnership is to improve the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. Its southeastern/mid-Atlantic regional partnership is poised to conduct implementation research in practice-based primary care settings and national organizations representing these settings and providers. RTI will seek to use its multiple laboratories of applied research to find solutions to common, important health care problems, and to spread proven innovations nationally. RTI has been conducting implementation research for two AHRQ initiatives that preceded ACTION II: the Integrated Delivery System Research Network (IDSRN) and the original ACTION. While a number of its partners are new to ACTION II, RTI has long existing collaborations with all its partners on projects outside of ACTION II.
States/Regions in Which All Health Care Provider Organizations Are Located:
North Carolina, District of Columbia, Georgia, New York, Tennessee, Virginia, and Maryland.
Partnership Members: American Medical Group Association; Children's National Medical Center; Duke University Health System; East Carolina University; Emory Healthcare; National Association of Community Health Centers; Northport VA Medical Center; University of North Carolina Health Care System; Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Virginia Commonwealth University.
Current as of April 2011
Internet Citation:
ACTION II Partnership Snapshots. April 2011. Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/actionIIpart.htm
540 Gaither Road Rockville, MD 20850 