The Safety Net Medical Home Initiative (SNMHI) developed a framework to help guide primary care practices through the PCMH transformation process—The Change Concepts for Practice Transformation.1 “Change concepts” are general ideas used to stimulate specific, actionable steps that lead to improvement. The Change Concepts were derived from reviews of the literature and discussions with leaders in primary care and quality improvement. Each Change Concept includes three to five “key changes.” These provide a practice undertaking PCMH transformation with more specific ideas for improvement. Each practice must decide how to implement these key changes in light of their organizational structure and context. The Change Concepts for Practice Transformation have been most extensively tested by the 65 safety net practices that participated in the SNMHI, but they are applicable to a wide range of primary care practice types. The Change Concepts have been adopted by a number of other improvement initiatives, reflecting their generalizability in primary care regardless of patient population or practice structure. They are supported by a comprehensive library of resources and tools that provide detailed descriptions and real examples of transformation strategies. These resources are free and publicly available. To learn more about the Change Concepts for Practice Transformation and the Safety Net Medical Home Initiative, visit: www.safetynetmedicalhome.org.
