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The Practice Facilitator Blueprint

Key Definitions of Practice Facilitation

The health transformation workforce are practice facilitators and physician champions with the defined role and skill to work with community care practices to help them with their incremental transformation toward a Patient’s Medical Home integrated with the Health Neighbourhood. 

Practice Facilitators are specially trained individuals who work with community care practices to enable meaningful changes designed to improve patients’ outcomes and clinic processes. They help physicians and quality improvement teams develop the skills they need to implement and adapt evidence-based practices to the specific circumstance of their practice environment.  

Practice Facilitation is a supportive service provided to community care practices by a specially trained individual who enables meaningful changes designed to improve patients’ outcomes and clinic processes.  A range of methods is used to build the internal capacity of a practice to engage in improvement activities over time to reach both incremental and transformative goals.  (Adapted from Baker)

The Blueprint Components

  1. Organizational Commitment

    The AMA is committed to supporting Practice Facilitators as a key resource to achieving Patient’s Medical Home and Health Neighbourhood implementation.

    Achieving Implementation of Patient's Medical Home

    The case and strategy for further investment in the Health Transformation Workforce (Practice Facilitators) to support clinic level changes. This paper was drafted by ACTT for the Physician Leads Executive.  It outlines the rationale and options for increasing the Alberta investment in additional practice facilitators.

  2. Identify & Recruit

    This section of the blueprint outlines the content and methods used by the AMA to identify and recruit various change agent groups.

    The AMA is involved in the identification and recruitment of change agents to varying degrees; for some physician champions the AMA is the recruiting organization, while for other change agents such as communicators, the AMA is not involved at all.  In other cases such as with Practice Facilitators and Panel Managers, evidence and job descriptions are available.

  3. Develop

    This section of the blueprint outlines the content and methods developed and/or used by the AMA to assist change agents in their development as it specifically relates to their functional role (e.g., clinic level physician champion, practice facilitator). This section does not cover the specific competencies of being a change agent. The development activities represent areas where it makes sense for there to be a provincial approach such as with training a panel manager or supporting a network of practice.  These activities are not meant to take the place of PCN or other organizational development activities.  All AMA offerings are optional. 

  4. Deploy

    This section of the blueprint outlines the approaches and methods to support the deployment of the change agent into the field.  As with the other steps in the blueprint, the AMA is involved in the deployment of the change agent to varying degrees.  The deployment content is intended to provide consistent tools and approaches to the work of implementing the Patient's Medical Home and Health Neighbourhood.

  5. Progress & Retain

    This section of the blueprint overlaps with development content in that the progression of the change agent often includes training and networking opportunities.  The focus in this section is on opportunities that stretch beyond the borders of the change agent's usual role, providing zonal, provincial, and national/international opportunities for learning and growth.