Name
What is an exemplary integrated practice now?
Description
Ten years ago, the AHRQ Integration Academy published, A Guidebook of Professional Practices for Behavioral Health and Primary Care Integration. The work was based on an in-depth on-site case study of several exemplary practices, focusing both on what members of the practices said they implemented, and what they were observed to be implementing. At the time, the Guidebook was useful as a resource for implementing integration in other settings because it showed the successful clinical, administrative, and financial actions of some then-current exemplars. In 2026, the Academy is planning to revisit the exemplar study to bring it up to date with the recent developments in the field. Given the advancement of telemedicine, payment changes, the addition of new team member roles, improved engagement with community agencies, and new pathways for training workforce members, what would an exemplary practice look like today? Is it necessary to consider these changes within the field in order to designate an exemplary integrated practice now? This presentation will seek to answer this question through revisiting the 2015 exemplars within the historical context of the field and will engage audience members for their ideas about what would make a practice qualify as exemplary today. This presentation will inform the selection of the exemplary practices for the upcoming 2026 case study.
Alexander Blount Parinda Khatri
Content Level
All Audience
Tags
Innovations, Research and evaluation, Technical assistance
Session Type
Concurrent
SIG or Committee
None of the Above
Objective 1
List elements of an exemplar study that could be relevant for their site.
Objective 2
List ways that an exemplary integration site is likely to have changed in the last 10 years.
Objective 3
Discuss common developmental trajectories of integrated primary care practices.
Content Reference 1
Deborah J. Cohen, PhD, Melinda M. Davis, PhD, Jennifer D. Hall, MPH, Emma C. Gilchrist, MPH, Benjamin F. Miller, PsyD. A Guidebook of Professional Practices for Behavioral Health and Primary Care Integration: Observations From Exemplary Sites. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. March 2015.
Content Reference 2
Wagner et al. Effective team-based primary care: observations from innovative practices BMC Family Practice (2017) 18:13
Content Reference 3
DeGruy, F.V., & Khatri, P. Everyone leads. In Gold & Green, (eds) Integrated Behavioral Health in Primary Care, Springer 2019
Content Reference 4
Blount, A, Patient-Centered Primary Care: Getting from Good to Great, Springer, 2019.
Content Reference 5
Etz, R., Gonzalez, M., Stenge, K. An innovative 3-step method for identifying exemplars, Int J of Qualitative Methods, 8.4.2019.