Measurement for Success

MEASUREMENT

C-TAC has developed the ACT Index as a tool to evaluate the quality of serious illness care using evidence-based measures. It allows healthcare leaders, policymakers, regulators, communities, and consumers to track progress towards improving care at the national and state-level and track its progress over time against leaders in different domains and determine the changes needed for care improvement.

C-TAC has released its 2023 C-TAC Advanced Care Transformation Index (ACT Index). The Index provides data and trends to make your case for improving care for those with serious illness at the state and regional level and drive national change.

The measures included in the Index address four key domains that must be addressed for those with serious illness; these include Care, Costs, Community & Caregivers, and Communications.

Two measure types are incorporated into the Index: 1. patient and family surveys of the patient care experience, and 2. transactional care processes such as cost, hospital readmissions, and home health visits.

View the ACT Index 3.0

A TOOL FOR ADVOCACY

The ACT Index Serves as a Compass

Implementing new policy recommendations for care delivery and services can be a multi-year, complex effort. And one of the biggest challenges our state partners have identified is securing early buy-in from policy makers, payors, foundations, and other stakeholders in an action plan. The Index can serve as a compass that can help give you and your fellow stakeholders objective data supporting the direction of your plan. The Index can also provide the foundation for common ground among all members of our coalition.

The report includes:

  • state-by-state report cards ranking performance by each domain
  • snapshots of the serious illness population per state: cost, utilization, and gaps in care
  • snapshots of serious illness providers per state: count and quality of individuals and care teams

Future Measure Advocacy

C-TAC advocates for the adoption of the following measures:

  • Patient’s and caregiver’s experience of feeling Heard and Understood
  • Patient’s experience of pain
  • Assessment for and referrals to additional services
  • Patient and family out of pocket costs

How to Use the ACT Index

State agencies and state-based coalitions can use the ACT Index to:

  • Advocate for standardized services to be available and paid for through health insurance
  • Identify and assess the current need for services for a state’s serious illness population
  • Advocate for workforce training and certification standards
  • Advocate for funding and other resources based on infrastructure needs for community-based organizations and health systems.

Key ACT Index Resources

Community Engagement Toolkit for State Coalitions

C-TAC has developed a new handbook designed to guide individuals and groups across the United States through the process of developing and strengthening partnerships on the state and local level.

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Arizona State Coalition & The ACT Index

C-TAC is participating in a partnership to leverage the Advanced Care Transformation (ACT) Index to improve the quality of life for people with serious illness in Arizona.

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Evidence-Based Best Practices for Improving State-Level C-TAC ACT Index Results

C-TAC partnered with Discern Health to support its continued efforts to build the Advanced Care Transformation Index (ACT Index), which C-TAC developed to assess the state of advanced illness and end-of-life care in the United States.

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Get Involved and Join Us

We can’t pull this off without our funders, partners, members, and industry innovators – we need you to participate. If you have ideas on how to improve these measures, or ways we can help you implement them, reach out and let us know!

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