Improving medical residents’ utilisation of integrated mental health in primary care

Background Integration of mental health services allows for improved prevention and management of chronic conditions within the primary care setting. This quality improvement project aimed to increase adherence to and functioning of an integrated care model within a patient-centred medical home. Spe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jenna Palladino, Deirdra Frum-Vassallo, Joanne D Taylor, Victoria L Webb
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2021-07-01
Series:BMJ Open Quality
Online Access:https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/10/3/e001388.full
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850129082911555584
author Jenna Palladino
Deirdra Frum-Vassallo
Joanne D Taylor
Victoria L Webb
author_facet Jenna Palladino
Deirdra Frum-Vassallo
Joanne D Taylor
Victoria L Webb
author_sort Jenna Palladino
collection DOAJ
description Background Integration of mental health services allows for improved prevention and management of chronic conditions within the primary care setting. This quality improvement project aimed to increase adherence to and functioning of an integrated care model within a patient-centred medical home. Specifically, the project focused on improving collaboration between Primary Care Mental Health Integration (PC-MHI) and the medical resident Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACT) at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northport,New York (VAMC Northport).Method The project used increased education, training and relationship building among the medical resident PACTs, and the establishment of regularly occurring integrated team meetings for medical and mental health providers. Education of residents was measured with a self-assessment pre-training and post-training, while utilisation was measured by the percentage of patients currently on a PACT’s panel with at least one PC-MHI encounter in the last 12 months (known in VAMC Northport as PACT-15 metric).Results Two resident PACTs that received both training and weekly integrated meetings increased their utilisation of integrated mental health services by 3.8% and 4.5%, respectively. PACTs that participated in training only, with no regular meetings, showed an initial improvement in utilisation that declined over time.Conclusions Training alone appeared beneficial but insufficient for increased integration over time. The addition of a regularly occurring integrated weekly meeting may be a critical component of facilitating sustained mental health integration in a primary care medical home model.
format Article
id doaj-art-7bab459e542b4dca8476cbb9e95b8745
institution OA Journals
issn 2399-6641
language English
publishDate 2021-07-01
publisher BMJ Publishing Group
record_format Article
series BMJ Open Quality
spelling doaj-art-7bab459e542b4dca8476cbb9e95b87452025-08-20T02:33:06ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open Quality2399-66412021-07-0110310.1136/bmjoq-2021-001388Improving medical residents’ utilisation of integrated mental health in primary careJenna Palladino0Deirdra Frum-Vassallo1Joanne D Taylor2Victoria L Webb3Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Stony Brook University, Commack, New York, USAPsychology Service, Northport VA Medical Center, Northport, New York, USAPsychology Service, Northport VA Medical Center, Northport, New York, USAMain Line Therapy and Psychological Services, LLC, Wayne, Pennsylvania, USABackground Integration of mental health services allows for improved prevention and management of chronic conditions within the primary care setting. This quality improvement project aimed to increase adherence to and functioning of an integrated care model within a patient-centred medical home. Specifically, the project focused on improving collaboration between Primary Care Mental Health Integration (PC-MHI) and the medical resident Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACT) at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northport,New York (VAMC Northport).Method The project used increased education, training and relationship building among the medical resident PACTs, and the establishment of regularly occurring integrated team meetings for medical and mental health providers. Education of residents was measured with a self-assessment pre-training and post-training, while utilisation was measured by the percentage of patients currently on a PACT’s panel with at least one PC-MHI encounter in the last 12 months (known in VAMC Northport as PACT-15 metric).Results Two resident PACTs that received both training and weekly integrated meetings increased their utilisation of integrated mental health services by 3.8% and 4.5%, respectively. PACTs that participated in training only, with no regular meetings, showed an initial improvement in utilisation that declined over time.Conclusions Training alone appeared beneficial but insufficient for increased integration over time. The addition of a regularly occurring integrated weekly meeting may be a critical component of facilitating sustained mental health integration in a primary care medical home model.https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/10/3/e001388.full
spellingShingle Jenna Palladino
Deirdra Frum-Vassallo
Joanne D Taylor
Victoria L Webb
Improving medical residents’ utilisation of integrated mental health in primary care
BMJ Open Quality
title Improving medical residents’ utilisation of integrated mental health in primary care
title_full Improving medical residents’ utilisation of integrated mental health in primary care
title_fullStr Improving medical residents’ utilisation of integrated mental health in primary care
title_full_unstemmed Improving medical residents’ utilisation of integrated mental health in primary care
title_short Improving medical residents’ utilisation of integrated mental health in primary care
title_sort improving medical residents utilisation of integrated mental health in primary care
url https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/10/3/e001388.full
work_keys_str_mv AT jennapalladino improvingmedicalresidentsutilisationofintegratedmentalhealthinprimarycare
AT deirdrafrumvassallo improvingmedicalresidentsutilisationofintegratedmentalhealthinprimarycare
AT joannedtaylor improvingmedicalresidentsutilisationofintegratedmentalhealthinprimarycare
AT victorialwebb improvingmedicalresidentsutilisationofintegratedmentalhealthinprimarycare