HCA 603 - Project Outline First Steps

CDC Template Guidelines for Evaluation Plan

1. Introduction and Stakeholder Engagement

This section provides information about the purpose of the evaluation and identifies stakeholders who are––or need to be––involved in the evaluation.

Evaluation Purpose

·      What is the purpose of this evaluation?
To determine the efficiency or inefficiency of employing allied health professionals for primary care physicians who accept Medicaid.

·      How will findings from the evaluation be used?
To see the possible improvements to healthcare workflows that can be made to better the healthcare care experience.

·      How does this evaluation “fit” with the overall strategic evaluation plan for the program?
The employment of secondary or allied health professionals continues to grow as the primary care shortage remains ever widening. Increases in efficiency of primary care practices will help to offset the growing healthcare deficit.

Stakeholders

·      What individuals and groups have an interest in the outcomes of this evaluation? Examples include program participants, staff, and critics.
Program Participants: Primary care health practices, hospitals, group practices.
Staff: Allied health professionals, management/administrative staff, clerks.
Critics: Healthcare professionals.

·      What perspective of the evaluation are they most interested in? For example, are they interested in the evaluation from a cost angle, effectiveness of the program, a critic, etc.?
Interested about cost and effectiveness of allied health professionals. These will impact long-term returns in both health access and insurance costs.

·      What role will they play in developing or implementing this evaluation plan? Examples include serving on planning team or as external reviewer, collecting data, interpreting findings, receiving results.
Office and administrative managers will serve to collect data on site, while 3^rd party consultants evaluate collected data offsite. The consulting company will also have some physicians to help interpret health outcomes.

Table F.1. Stakeholder Assessment and Engagement Plan (* indicates member of planning team)

Stakeholder Name	Stakeholder Category	Interest or Perspective	Role in the Evaluation
{May be an individual or a group}	{primary, secondary, tertiary}	{program participant, staff, etc.}	{planning team, external reviewer, etc.}
Physicians	Primary	Program participant	Reviewer, Provide input
Allied Health Professionals	Primary	Program participant	Provide data input
Office Managers/Administration	Secondary	Program reviewer, planner	Planning team, reviewer
3rd Part Consultant in Healthcare	Secondary	Program creator	Planning team, external reviewer
Government health programs	Tertiary	Indirect involvement	Awaits results.
General Public	Tertiary	Indirect involvement	Awaits results.

Cultural Competence

·      How will you engage stakeholders who reflect the diversity of those who may be affected by the evaluation’s findings?
Operate with bilingual programs in mind as well as cultural consulting.

·      How will you ensure that you successfully elicit and incorporate the various perspectives?
Various perspectives will be gathered through different practices each with their own assortment of staff and health professionals.

·      How will you account for the influence of context and culture in your evaluation design, implementation, and reporting?
Consultants assigned to minority or varied ethnic groups will be screened for cultural sensitivity prior to evaluation. Office managers and administration will delegate data collection to admin on site so as to avoid difficult cultural transitions.

2. Description of Allied Health Professionals

This section provides detailed information about what you are evaluating, for example, your program’s strategies, processes, policies, etc. For ease of reference, we use the term “program” below to refer to “what you are evaluating,” though you may be evaluating something other than a program.

In this section describe the need for the program, its context, intended audience, and stage of development. You will also provide information about its inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes and will develop a logic model. In the narrative portion, include information that might not be obvious when using the “shorthand” of the logic model.

Need

·      What need is your program designed to meet?

Dealing with the primary care shortage in America will require support from advanced practice providers (APPs). The ultimate question is whether or not the APPs can provide just as good service as physicians even with lower cost.

Context

·      What is the program’s context? That is, what contextual or cultural factors may affect its implementation or effectiveness?

Program is testing the hierarchy of medicine with continued intrusion of APPs such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners into the field of primary care medicine. This may lead to clashes with traditional ideals of physician dominated healthcare provision.

Population Addressed

·      Who is included in the population for whom activities are intended?

Intended for general population, but especially for underserved health areas.

Stage of Development

·      How long has the program been in place?

Program is planning on being implemented for a period of 3-4 years.

·      Is it in the planning or implementation stage?

The program is still in its planning stage so as to make sure the comparison studies and analysis will be up to par for the task.

Resources/Inputs

·      What resources are available to support the program (e.g., staff, money, space, time, partnerships, technology, etc.)?

Using Queens Medical Professional monetary funds to guide the organization into the next level of healthcare provision. Staff in place with interconnected network of healthcare professionals.

Activities

·      What specific activities are conducted (or planned) to achieve the program’s outcomes?

Review of charts and patient health outcome analysis, in addition to consistent meetings to ensure the smooth function of the program.

Outputs

·      What do the activities produce (e.g., materials, units of services delivered)?

The activities produce reports that will be compiled at the end to “prove” the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of advanced practice providers.

Outcomes

·      What are the program’s intended outcomes? (Intended outcomes may be short-term, intermediate, or long-term and are changes that occur in something outside of your program.)

The program’s intended outcome is to determine whether or not the use of advance practice providers will help provide more health facilities with effective treatments.

·      What do you ultimately want to change as a result of your activities (long-term outcomes)?

Increasing health access as well as efficiency will help to enable better health outcomes in health professional shortage areas (HPSA).

·      What occurs between your activities and the point at which you see these ultimate outcomes (short-term and intermediate outcomes)?

Many reports and tests to determine the effectiveness of APPs.

Organizing information about your program in a table can be a useful first step in creating a logic model. You may choose to use only a table; you may choose to use a table and a logic model; or you may choose to include only a logic model in your plan. 

Table F.2. Program Description Template

Resources/Inputs	Activities		Outputs	Outcomes
	Initial	Subsequent		Short-Term/Intermediate	Long-Term
Physicians	Chart review	Demographic chart analysis	Reports	Increase employment of PA & NP	Increase health outcomes in the area
PA	Time review	Time assessment	Summaries	Increase patient intake	Decrease hospitalizations
MA	Health outcome summaries	Analysis of report differences	Workflow assessments	Increase availability of care	Improve patient documenting consistency
Associated health professionals	Monthly meet ups	Monthly minutes	Health clinics	Increase number of health clinics	Smoother primary care transition to other services
PT	Patient survey	Survey analysis	Health professional positions	Increase culture variety of health services
NP	Billing claims report	Claims investigation		Decrease patient wait times
Office manager
Computer EHR, software