Engaging Primary Care Providers to Reduce Unwanted Clinical Variation and Support ACO Cost and Quality Goals: A Unique Provider-Payer Collaboration.

This project was undertaken to reduce unneeded variation among practicing primary care clinicians participating in an accountable care organization (ACO) and to raise quality and reduce costs. This real-world, quasi-controlled experiment compared ACO target improvements between 3 participating geographic regions and members within the ProHealth ACO against nonparticipating regions and members. The authors used a novel care standardization initiative to engage participating providers.

Creating a culture of patient safety in a primary-care physician group.

Typically risk-management strategies have been applied to the inpatient setting. In 2003, a comprehensive risk-management program was introduced to ProHealth Physicians, one of the largest primary-care practice groups in Connecticut. The program included strategies for education, practice change, incentive and compliance.