The Effect of the Patient Activation Measure on Chronic Care

The three main aims of the project are to:

• Determine whether the PAM-driven intervention increases patients' knowledge and self-management skills, measured by both generic PAM scores and HTN-specific measures developed by the research team.
• Determine whether the PAM-driven intervention improves HTN patients' systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), measured in three ways:

• Average percent reduction in systolic and diastolic BP.
• Percent of patients who achieve BP control (defined as <140 systolic and <90 diastolic BP or <130 systolic and <80 diastolic for patients with diabetes or renal disease).
• Percent of patients with controlled HTN who maintain control.
• Conduct an analysis to examine implementation of the intervention by trainers and Care Managers in the Intervention group and to understand the barriers and facilitators affecting the implementation process.

In addition, we will conduct a feasibility study with a subset of Care Managers to determine how the Visual Scan Assessment of Patient Activation might be incorporated into routine assessment and care planning procedures. Therefore, the fourth aim of the project is to:

• Assess the feasibility and perceived usefulness of the Visual Scan Assessment as a tool to increase feedback to Care Managers on how well they are supporting patient self-care management.

Inclusion criteria

• active VNS CHOICE patient on one of the 22 Intervention or Control teams at the start of the intervention period,
• in care for less than or equal to 730 days,
• a formal diagnosis of HTN (using appropriate ICD codes recorded in the patient record), and
• English speaking.

Exclusion criteria

• moderate or severe cognitive impairment as measured by a six-item short portable mental status assessment
• organic brain disease dx in as one of the top 5 dx as measured by information in OASIS, the uniform home care assessment instrument mandated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
• End Stage Renal disease dx as one of the top 5 dx as measured by information in OASIS