ANCHOR: A Novel Care Home, Optimizing Retention

Principal Investigator: Amy M. Sitapati, M.D.
Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego

Patient-Centered Medical Home Demonstration Project
Awarded: 2010

Clinical Site: The Owen Clinic is a primary care HIV practice for the UC San Diego Health System serving more than 3,000 active patients. Established in 1982, the Owen Clinic is a single, urban, academic, outpatient primary care clinic that receives HRSA Ryan White funding to provide multi-disciplinary care to patients living with HIV/AIDS.

Major Components: ANCHOR is a pilot project aimed to improve patient retention and performance on quality care indicators. Interventions using supportive technology are being implemented within the patient centered medical home (PCMH) model in order to improve patient self-efficacy. A series of simultaneous changes within the medical practice include: introduction of a clinic based computer web-page for health literacy and systems navigation; basic health related computer training for patients; enhanced computer access (within the clinic and community); improved patient based electronic medical records; supportive electronic medical record changes for the healthcare team; and additional modalities for patient access to their health communications.

Research Aims: ANCHOR will serve to determine whether patient directed technological interventions benefit the primary care HIV/AIDS practice and serve to improve retention. Specifically, ANCHOR has five aims:

  1. To better describe patient activity within the patient centered medical home (PCMH) by re-defining retention as patient centered retention.
  2. To increase patient engagement in care by 10% through a number of simultaneous interventions to the primary care HIV practice including improved computer access, computer literacy training, a clinic based web page, Epic MyUCSDChart enhancements, Epic outpatient ambulatory enhancements and secure voice mail.
  3. To evaluate the impact of PCHM enhancements at a single primary care clinic on health outcomes including HIVQual measures, age specific prevention targets, quality of life survey, patient satisfaction, and mortality.
  4. To describe the developmental needs, practice re-engineering principles, and methodology for practical PCMH uptake in the primary care HIV practice.
  5. To anonymously describe the personal experiences and opinions of patients and staff functioning in a PCMH model about their positive and negative experiences within our practice.

Contact Person: Susan McQuillen smcquillen@ucsd.edu; ph 619-543-2535
Website: http://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/owen/Pages/default.aspx