Impact of a Regional Program Agir Sur Sa SantE

BACKGROUND: In an era where cardio-metabolic chronic diseases (CMCD) take epidemic proportions, health systems have to react by providing care to manage but also to prevent them. Our region has demonstrated leadership in developing and implementing regional care frameworks and patient trajectories defining services throughout the continuum of care (from community to primary to specialized care). However, these diabetes, cardiac rehabilitation and 0-5-30 prevention programs have been implemented in silos. Under the leadership of decision-makers of our regional health Agency, in order to improve accessibility and quality of care, our team has worked on the development and implementation of an integrated care framework for the prevention and management of cardio-metabolic chronic diseases: Agir Sur Sa SantÉ (ASSSÉ). This new framework, based on individual/group motivational techniques, care protocols and collective orders, is currently being implemented in the context of community health centers (CSSS). The investigators recently received a Quebec Ministry of Health grant to continue supporting the implementation in CSSS, implement the care framework in family medicine groups (FMG; spring 2015) and initiate some baseline evaluations (satisfaction and perceptions questionnaires). The investigators hypothesize that successful implementation of ASSSÉ could improve accessibility indicators, for patients affected or at risk for CMCD, patient and primary care personnel satisfaction, fidelity, quality and continuity of care in the context of FMGs.

OBJECTIVES: The investigators aim to:

1. Analyze the implementation process of the new ASSSÉ framework in the context of FMGs by: a) establishing its acceptability and perceived usefulness by patients and health professionals; b) identifying the determinants (barriers and facilitators) of its implementation; c) describing the strategies used to implement the ASSSÉ care framework in FMGs.
2. Estimate the size of the effects of ASSSÉ (including main effects and variability of effects across FMGs to allow for informed sample size calculation in the planning of a future large-scale trial) on: a) patients (satisfaction, health outcomes); b) primary care professionals (practice, satisfaction, self-efficacy); c) health care system (organizational and technical quality of care indicators, accessibility and continuity of care indicators, fidelity of care to framework).
3. Effectively share knowledge obtained through these activities to relevant stakeholders in the health care and public health sectors, including policy makers, decision makers, health care professionals and patients using innovative tools and approaches.

METHODS AND APPROACH: This participatory research project will use a mixed-method approach combining qualitative and quantitative assessments. The project will be conducted in three steps: 1-Pre-implementation evaluation: Services and patient trajectories currently provided in all 14 FMGs of the Eastern Townships will be assessed using chart reviews to evaluate technical quality of care indicators and health outcomes. The investigators will also use questionnaires evaluating the concordance with the Expended chronic care model, self-efficacy, satisfaction of personnel and patients, and potential areas to target for improvement to assess organizational quality of care. Questionnaires and semi-structured group interviews with health professionals, decision-makers and patients with, or at risk for, CMCD will also be performed; 2- Post-implementation evaluation and data analysis: 12, 24 and 36 months after initiation of implementation, the investigators will perform a similar evaluation as done in the initial phase. Semi-structured group interviews will only be repeated at 24 months. Pre- and post-implementation comparisons will be performed using paired t-tests for continuous variables and McNemar tests for dichotomous variables to identify areas of improvement and persistent gaps. 3-Knowledge translation(KT): Integrated KT is an important outcome of this research, has already begun and will occur throughout the project with the various actors involved. The investigators will also reach out to various target audiences (health professionals, decision-makers and policy-makers, patients and Canadian population) through classic end-of-grant KT and the production of a clear executive summary of research results.

IMPACT: Considering the epidemic of chronic diseases, this project is very important as it will generate knowledge on models of care integrating preventive and management interventions of multiple conditions in primary care, in continuum with specialized health care services. It also has high transferability potential in various provincial and disease contexts.