Scaling an Evidence‐Based Community Health Worker Program With Fidelity: Results and Lessons Learned.

Policy PointsEffectively implemented community health worker (CHW) programs improve patient health outcomes and quality of care, reduce health care costs, and are a key strategy for addressing social and structural drivers of health.As policymakers consider funding mechanisms for CHW programs, it is...

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Publicado en:Milbank Quarterly Vol. 103; no. 2; pp. 513 - 528
Autores principales: KNOWLES, MOLLY, VASAN, ADITI, PAN, ZIWEI, LONG, JUDITH A., KANGOVI, SHREYA
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell Jun2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Scaling an Evidence‐Based Community Health Worker Program With Fidelity: Results and Lessons Learned.
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          KNOWLES, MOLLY
          VASAN, ADITI
          PAN, ZIWEI
          LONG, JUDITH A.
          KANGOVI, SHREYA
        affil:
          Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
          Penn Center for Community Health Workers, University of Pennsylvania Health System
          Division of General Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
          Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania
          Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center
          IMPaCT Care
      su:
        Community health services
        Health services accessibility
        Home care services
        Supervision of employees
        Human services programs
        Social determinants of health
        Interprofessional relations
        Evaluation of human services programs
        Health policy
        Medical care
        Hospital care
        Interviewing
        Patient-centered care
        Organizational change
        Telephones
        Metropolitan areas
        Health equity
        Interpersonal relations
        Continuing education
        Critical care medicine
        Medical protocols
        Public hospitals
        Professional practice
        At-risk people
        Hospital emergency services
        Descriptive statistics
        Workflow
        Research methodology
        Eligibility (Social aspects)
        Evidence-based medicine
        Health outcome assessment
        Quality assurance
        Length of stay in hospitals
        Medical needs assessment
        Confidence intervals
        Regression analysis
        Brainstorming
      sug:
        subj:
          Community health services
          Health services accessibility
          Home care services
          Supervision of employees
          Human services programs
          Social determinants of health
          Interprofessional relations
          Evaluation of human services programs
          Health policy
          Medical care
          Hospital care
          Interviewing
          Patient-centered care
          Organizational change
          Telephones
          Metropolitan areas
          Health equity
          Interpersonal relations
          Continuing education
          Critical care medicine
          Other local, municipal and regional public administration
          Other Individual and Family Services
          Community health centres
          All Other Outpatient Care Centers
          Residential Mental Health and Substance Abuse Facilities
          Professional and Management Development Training
          Home Health Care Services
          Services for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities
          Offices of All Other Miscellaneous Health Practitioners
          Offices of all other health practitioners
          Administration of Public Health Programs
          General Medical and Surgical Hospitals
          Electronic components, navigational and communications equipment and supplies merchant wholesalers
          Medical protocols
          Public hospitals
          Professional practice
          At-risk people
          Hospital emergency services
          Descriptive statistics
          Workflow
          Research methodology
          Eligibility (Social aspects)
          Evidence-based medicine
          Health outcome assessment
          Quality assurance
          Length of stay in hospitals
          Medical needs assessment
          Confidence intervals
          Regression analysis
          Brainstorming
      keyword:
        community health workers
        implementation science
        social drivers of health
        community health workers
        implementation science
        social drivers of health
      ab: Policy PointsEffectively implemented community health worker (CHW) programs improve patient health outcomes and quality of care, reduce health care costs, and are a key strategy for addressing social and structural drivers of health.As policymakers consider funding mechanisms for CHW programs, it is crucial to tie funding to evidence‐based best practices while also allowing for innovation and context‐specific adaptations. Context: Community health worker (CHW) programs represent a key strategy for addressing social and structural drivers of health and have the potential to improve patient health outcomes and enhance quality of care while reducing health care costs. However, challenges such as high staff turnover, lack of program infrastructure, and inadequate CHW support and supervision can hinder implementation and sustainment of effective CHW programs. Furthermore, few CHW programs have been successfully scaled across multiple organizations and communities. Individualized Management for Person‐Centered Targets (IMPaCT) is an evidence‐based CHW model designed to address these challenges by standardizing processes for CHW hiring, training, support, and supervision while still allowing for context‐specific adaptation and tailoring. In this dissemination and implementation project, we evaluated implementation of IMPaCT across five geographically and structurally distinct sites serving diverse and varied patient populations. Methods: Model fidelity was assessed across seven best practice domains via structured virtual observations with CHWs, supervisors, and program directors at each implementation site. Acute care use was evaluated using difference‐in‐differences regression modeling for patients enrolled in IMPaCT compared with a propensity score‐matched control group. All implementation sites examined total hospital days per patient, and several sites chose to incorporate additional measures of acute care use such as the number of hospitalizations and emergency department visits. Findings: We found that core program components were implemented consistently across sites, and three of five sites were able to both sustain implementation over a three‐year period and demonstrate significant reductions in acute care use, consistent with previous randomized controlled trials of this program. Conclusions: Health systems may be able to address social drivers of health and improve population health for patients who are low‐income and patients of color by implementing evidence‐based CHW programs with fidelity.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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