The ACT Program
Arkansas has some of the highest prevalence rates for chronic diseases in the nation, such as hypertension at 58.4%, hyperlipidemia at 36.4%, ischemic heart disease at 30.3%, and diabetes mellitus at 25.5%.1 In efforts to mitigate these burdens of disease, the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) operates the Arkansas Clinical Transformation (ACT) program, a quality improvement (QI) intervention to help primary care clinics improve chronic disease management.
Collaborative program partners include health care clinics, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), QI consultants, and subject matter experts who work collectively to improve the delivery of care, outcomes, and quality of life for chronic disease patients.
ACT assists clinics through these key strategies:
- Quality improvement training
- Application of the Chronic Care and Institute for Healthcare Improvement Models to facilitate best practices
- Enhancing data management and reporting
- Preparing primary care practices for implementation of National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) accreditation
Reasons to Apply
- Experience collaborative QI training and learning
- Receive assistance in implementing guidelines-based best practices and applying new health care delivery models
- Enhance patient-centered interactions
- Learn processes to identify and manage high-risk patients
- Improve performance measures and reporting
- For continuing education information, to register, and other details, visit uams.cloud-cme.com
- Receive grant funds to offset expenses
- Observe returns on investment as performance improves
What You Contribute
- Teams support practice redesign and are dedicated to improving patient outcomes
- Teams meet regularly to test changes and evaluate new processes and outcomes
- Teams participate in monthly webinars/ conference calls, and provider champions and team members attend in-person learning sessions
- Teams submit monthly tests-of-change and performance measure data to ACT faculty
How ACT Supports You
- Delivers QI training and recommendations
- Helps prepare your practice for PCMH certification or maintenance of certification
- Helps determine the best strategies to meet your needs
- Offers support to:
- Map current clinical processes
- Review provider and staff responsibilities
- Assess your clinic’s capability to report data
- Recommend electronic health records (EHR) modifications to build patient registries
- Train clinical teams to improve the quality of patient care
- Provide constructive monthly feedback for process changes and performance improvement
- Facilitate monthly webinars/conference calls to troubleshoot problem areas and provide necessary support
Who is Eligible to Apply
- Primary care practices affiliated with a hospital, health system or practice network
- Independent primary care practices (family internal medicine or specialty practices that serve as primary care centers for patients)
- Federally Qualified Health Centers (Community Health Centers)
Program Application Process
Grants for program participation are awarded by ADH through a competitive application process. If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Phillip Borden at (501) 661-2075, phillip.borden@arkansas.gov or June Nelson at (501) 661-2627, june.nelson@arkansas.gov.
