Rationale and design for Healthy Hearts for Michigan (HH4M): A pragmatic single-arm hybrid effectiveness-implementation study.

Background: The burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is particularly high in several US states, which include the state of Michigan. Hypertension and smoking are two major risk factors for mortality due to CVD. Rural Michigan is disproportionally affected by CVD and by primary care shortages. The Healthy Hearts for Michigan (HH4M) study aims to promote hypertension management and smoking cessation through practice facilitation and quality improvement efforts and is part of the multi-state EvidenceNOW: Building State Capacity initiative to provide external support to primary care practices to improve care delivery.

Methods: Primary care practices in rural and underserved areas of Michigan were recruited to join HH4M, a pragmatic, single-arm hybrid Type 2 effectiveness-implementation study during which practice facilitation was delivered at the practice level for 12 months, followed by a 3-month maintenance period.

Results: Fifty-four practices were enrolled over a 12-month recruitment period. At baseline, the mean proportion (standard deviation) of patients at the practice level meeting the clinical quality measures were: blood pressure, 0.72 (0.12); tobacco screening, 0.80 (0.30); tobacco cessation intervention, 0.57 (0.28); tobacco screening and cessation intervention: 0.78 (0.26).

Conclusion: This three-year research program will evaluate the ability of rural and medically underserved primary care practices to implement the quality improvement model by identifying drivers of and barriers to sustainable implementation, and test whether the model improves (a) blood pressure control and (b) tobacco use screening and cessation.