Evaluation Guide - RIFS

The Health Neighbourhood (HN) includes the entire care continuum from Patient's Medical Home (PMH) to community and encompasses the services provided by all healthcare and community supports such as community pharmacists, psychologists and community programs like tax clinics, employment programs or Family & Community Support Services (FCSS). Initiatives focused on complex health and social challenges of patients (PMH-HN initiatives) require strong links between PMH team members and community partners. Evidence shows that multi-sector teams with strong links between partners and sharing of information in the health neighbourhood results in improved patient outcomes, safety, experience, and lower costs through reduced duplication of services.

Evaluation of PMH-HN initiatives should consider a variety of perspectives about whether initiatives work but also how they work, and how they interact with the context in which they are being implemented. Based on the learnings from the Reducing the Impact of Financial Strain (RIFS) project and building on the Alberta Healthy Communities Approach, this Guide was developed to assist PCNs and their multi-sector teams help focus evaluation of PMH-HN initiatives by offering sample evaluation questions and indicators.

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