Mary Roth McClurg, Eshelman School of Pharmacy
Medication misuse, underuse, and overuse contributes to poor quality health care and accounts for nearly $300 billion in health care spending annually, suggesting that efforts to improve national health care must address the growing problems around medication use. The Enhancing Performance in Primary Care Medical Practice through Implementation of Comprehensive Medication Management (CMM) study aims to advance the efficient and effective delivery of CMM in primary care in order to optimize medication use for patients, improve health, and control costs. This requires that we operationalize CMM intervention, integrate into practices’ workflow, and ensure a consistent approach to care delivery. A network of 36 primary care practices across the United States was established through a partnership between UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, American Academy of Family Physicians National Research Network, and the National Implementation Research Network. The Active Implementation Frameworks (AIFs) are being used to conceptually guide the study including the use of the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles. The presentation will describe how the AIFs including PDSA cycles are being used to support the process of purposeful small tests of change and facilitate site teams in identifying challenges, solving problems, improving processes, and building infrastructure within the primary care practice. The PDSA cycles results are being systematically captured to enhance our understanding of how CMM can be delivered effectively and efficiently in real-world practices. Lessons learned from developing the capacity of study sites to engage in active implementation practices including PDSA cycles will also be shared.