Facilitating improvement in primary care: the promise of practice coaching

Issue Brief (Commonw Fund). 2012 Jun:15:1-14.

Abstract

Practice coaching, also called practice facilitation, assists physician practices with the desire to improve in such areas as patient access, chronic and preventive care, electronic medical record use, patient-centeredness, cultural competence, and team-building. This issue brief clarifies the essential features of practice coaching and offers guidance for health system leaders, public and private insurers, and federal and state policymakers on how best to structure and design these programs in primary care settings. Good-quality evidence demonstrates that practice coaching is effective. The authors argue that primary care delivery in the United States would benefit from a more systematic approach to the training and deployment of primary care practice coaches.

MeSH terms

  • Canada
  • Delivery of Health Care / methods*
  • Family Practice / education
  • Humans
  • Netherlands
  • Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care
  • Physicians, Family / education
  • Practice Management, Medical / organization & administration*
  • Practice Patterns, Physicians' / organization & administration*
  • Primary Health Care / organization & administration*
  • Quality Improvement / organization & administration*
  • Quality of Health Care / organization & administration*
  • United Kingdom
  • United States