Evaluations of the patient-centered medical home, a model that redesigns primary care, should account for clustering of patients within practices. This paper describes why and how to do this, and what samples of patients and practices are needed for studies to achieve adequate statistical power.

This issue brief provides a concise description for decision makers of why and how to commission effective evaluations of patient-centered medical home demonstrations. The authors discuss what outcomes to assess, why to include comparison practices, and the importance of accounting for clustering.

This report evaluated Mercy Medical Center North Iowa and Health Quality Partners, two providers in the Medicare Coordinated Care Demonstration, a rigorous multiyear evaluation sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to determine if care coordination improves quality of...

This paper offers policymakers and researchers insights into opportunities to engage patients and families in the medical home. It presents a framework for conceptualizing opportunities for engagement, reviews the evidence base for these activities, describes examples of existing efforts,...

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released a new Evaluation Guide for designing real-world evaluations of interventions such as the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) and other models to improve primary care delivery. Effective primary care can improve health and cost...

A new brief from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality describes the importance of quality improvement in primary care and outlines external supports—which can be used alone or in combination—to assist primary care practices in improving quality.