Evaluation Measures for Services Integration Programs

Rural services integration programs have found that having a common set of performance measures can help to keep the project team working towards the same goals. Baseline and interval measures can be used to monitor the effectiveness of program activities and document changes in the target group. The measures used to evaluate services integration programs vary depending on the services integration model and the goal of the evaluation. For example:

• Process Measures: Focus on measuring how services are provided. Examples include:
  • Number of staff trained
  • Number of educational sessions held
  • Number of partnerships the program has formed with other stakeholder organizations
  • Number of meetings held with partners to assess progress and make changes
  • Level of participation of organizations involved in the program
  • Number of patients enrolled in and/or served by the program
  • Number of referrals to other services
• Outcome Measures: Focus on measuring the results or overall achievements of the program. Examples include:
  • Change in availability of health and social services in the community, such as locations of a mobile clinic, or fitness programs in schools
  • Change in health outcomes over time, such as alcohol intake, infant birthweight, or A1C level
  • Change in awareness of health topics, such as obesity, heart disease, or prenatal healthcare
  • Change in policies and legislation related to health, such as school policy change in regards to nutrition, physical education, and WSCC health programs
  • Return on investment (ROI) in program examining social and medical cost savings

The AHRQ Care Coordination Measures Atlas maps existing measures to key care coordination activities, and is a useful resource for care coordination evaluation and measurement. For additional information, see Evaluation Measures in the Rural Community Health Toolkit.