Practice Transformation: Using Team-Based Care Training to Improve Diabetes Outcomes

Background: One of the key factors of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) transformation require shifting mental models at the individual level and culture change at the practice level on how clinicians and support staff work together. This culture shift requires a reeducation on the roles and communication strategies within the medical practice. The objective of this project was to implement a team-based care training program based on the AHRQ TeamSTEPPS framework in 6 primary care practices affiliated with a Primary Care Practice Based Research Network to increase communication and performance of the care teams. Methods: Clinicians and staff from these sites received external facilitation by a certified TeamSTEPPS master trainer, who is a physician specializing in diabetes care, over a 1-year period. An analysis of their established diabetes patients’ hemoglobin A1c and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol before the training program and posttraining was performed using the paired t test and verified using the Wilcoxon sign rank test. Results: There was a statistically significant decrease in the mean hemoglobin A1c levels from 7.48% to 7.32% (P < .001) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol from 92.34 to 88.34 mg/dL (P = .002) for all the practices combined but only 3 practices saw significant improvement individually. Conclusions: Even though the practices participating in this training are PCMHs and are part of a larger primary care network, they have achieved different levels of success, partly due to leadership and buy-in by staff. Practice leaders and team members need to fully embrace team care concepts and continuously monitor teamwork experiences to support effective team-based care.