Improving addiction treatment through quality measures and technical assistance

Although addiction treatment can be very effective, the quality of service delivery varies greatly. The National Academy of Medicine recommended that substance use treatment systems create a “learning health care system” to facilitate the adoption of evidence based practices and continuous quality improvement.

RTI makes creating a learning health care system possible by leveraging infrastructure already in place and connecting the dots to improve quality systematically. We use a data-driven approach to help improve addiction treatment quality by

  • Implementing process and outcome measures at all system levels—state, health plan/local management entity, consumer, provider and patient
  • Providing training and technical assistance (TTA) to improve processes and outcomes

Training and Technical Assistance

RTI has experience providing TTA on the federal, state and local levels across a number of opportunities. Our TTA is grounded in implementation science and data. Our experts work to develop an understanding of your unique needs to build a customized TTA plan that delivers a range of resources using a variety of methods.

Implementation Toolkit: State Measures for Improving Opioid Use Disorder Treatment

To better track how well current OUD treatment systems work, a new implementation toolkit has been released to help state policymakers and data analysts adopt core OUD treatment measures to improve OUD policies, programs, and practices. The toolkit includes a checklist of activities to implement the measures, detailed information about each metric, and ways the measures can be used to identify inequities in access and use of OUD treatment. 

Access the toolkit about Implementation Toolkit: State Measures for Improving Opioid Use Disorder Treatment

Three Phases to Improve Addiction Treatment Quality

RTI leverages an iterative, evidence-based approach to create a completely customized, continually improving learning addiction treatment system to improve quality and care through our Addiction Quality Improvement Process (AQIP™).

Assess

We use an evidence-based framework to assess the measures being collected and outcomes achieved and provide a roadmap that details a strategic plan for improvement.

  • Prioritize goals for quality and outcome improvement.
  • Assess current measures being used and baseline outcomes.
  • Leverage data maps to visualize and prioritize focus.
  • Build a strategic plan based on the assessment and priorities.

Implement Measures

RTI implements quality measures and evidence-based best practices across addiction treatment systems to improve outcomes.

  • Use the strategic plan and RTI Addiction Quality Measure Inventory to select patient-level outcomes measures.
  • Select and implement other complementary measures (e.g., RTI Provider-Level Addiction Quality Claims Measures).

Improve

We provide TTA and evaluate for continued optimization.

  • Engage providers by delivering TTA to scale up processes quickly and efficiently.
  • Perform ongoing reassessments to determine progress.
  • Monitor changes in the rapidly evolving crisis to anticipate and adapt to meet treatment needs.

Featured Experts

Tami Mark, PhD, MBA

Dr. Mark is an internationally known expert on behavioral health care financing, services and quality measurement. She is an expert in the use of administrative data, such as insurance claims data for health services and quality improvement research and has consulted with Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services state Medicaid agencies, state behavioral health agencies and behavioral health providers on the development and use of quality metrics.

Learn More about Tami Mark, PhD, MBA

Julie Seibert, PhD

Dr. Seibert has extensive experience with quality management and quality improvement, including managing state-wide quality strategies, developing performance measures and developing monitoring tools and data collection processes. She has 20 years of behavioral health care experience, including program management, research and direct consumer care and has worked on projects developing quality measures and public reporting systems for addictions and post-acute care.

Learn More about Julie Seibert, PhD

Interested in learning more about improving quality in addiction treatment? Contact us.