Cambridge Health Alliance

CHA is an integrated healthcare system based in Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston’s metro-north communities. Included in the system are 12 primary care clinics, 3 community hospitals and several specialty sites.

In 2010, with the impetus of a CHIPRA (Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009) grant, CHA first integrated Parent Partners into a multidisciplinary improvement team at Cambridge Pediatrics, the hospital-based pediatric primary care clinic affiliated with CHA. The team, along with other leaders, recognized the opportunity offered by this pilot to expand and include the patient voice in all of its clinics.

Previously, CHA had created a system-wide Patient- and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) as well as some clinic PFACs but sustainability was a challenge. Therefore, when CHA formed multidisciplinary improvement teams at each primary care clinic, two patients were embedded as members of the team. In this way, Patient Partners are an integral part of PCMH practice improvement.

By 2016, 11 of CHA’s clinics had Performance Improvement Teams (PITs) (two small clinics share a team). Eight of the PITs have Patient Partners and the remaining three are actively recruiting. PITs typically meet every other week, and Patient Partners are expected to attend a minimum of 80% of these meetings, as well as a monthly peer meeting.

In expanding from the Cambridge Pediatrics pilot to other clinics, CHA developed a standardized toolkit, including resources for the team’s launch, codes of conduct, guidelines for meetings, and scripts for interviewing prospective Patient Partners. CHA also created the position of Patient Lead to oversee the expansion across all clinics.