Methodology for Knowledge Capture

To capture the unique aspects of implementing the Chronic Care Model in the academic environment, a knowledge capture team composed of staff from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Association of American Medical Colleges, and Delmarva Foundation visited four high-performing sites in 2006 to learn about their successful implementation of the Chronic Care Model in their residency programs.

The team visited Summa Health System from September 12-13, Oregon Health & Science University from September 18-19, the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center from October 3-4, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center from October 11-12.

The mission of the knowledge capture team was to compile these sites' knowledge and share it with other academic settings to help them adopt similar changes in their own organizations.

Along with the knowledge capture team, colleagues from other institutions attended site visits and were able to ask questions about the site's tests of change, adoptions, and implementations. They were also encouraged to share their own experiences with the Chronic Care Model. This led to robust discussions that would probably have not happened if the knowledge capture team were there alone.

The Site Visits

Before each visit, teams at each site were asked to prepare presentations detailing their most effective, results-producing changes in a step-by-step fashion. These teams, called improvement teams, were also asked to share the lessons they learned from changes that were not successful.

When preparing their comments, the teams were given a series of questions about both specific process changes as well as organizational changes to consider. Lastly, they were asked to compile any forms, training materials, and communication tools they created that contributed to their success.

The Presentations

The knowledge capture team collaborated with the improvement teams to create a one-day agenda for the site visits. The format followed 15-minute descriptions of the successful changes followed by 45 minutes of dialogue, which included questions and comments from all participants.

Each improvement team organized their presentations based on the changes that had the greatest impact. Following the visits, the knowledge capture team identified common themes in the presentations and organized the information in this toolkit. 

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