AHRQ Six Building Blocks: A Team-Based Approach to Improving Opioid Management in Primary Care
Deaths from drug overdoses (PDF, 429 KB) have risen steadily over the past two decades. The misuse of opioids has become widespread across the United States. Primary care providers and their clinic staff manage most patients taking opioids for chronic pain, with many clinics looking for assistance to help manage these patients.
Responding to this need, AHRQ funded the Six Building Blocks: A Team-Based Approach to Improving Opioid Management in Primary Care (6BBs or Building Blocks) program. It is intended for clinicians and staff, quality improvement personnel, practice coaches, and clinic administrators. The system-based approach focuses on key areas to guide treatment of patients who use long-term opioid therapy.
To facilitate use of the program, AHRQ developed resources and tools for opioid management. Initially, a Self-Service How-To Guide was released while it was being pilot tested by primary care clinics. Findings from the testing resulted in the Six Building Blocks: A Team-Based Approach to Improving Opioid Management in Primary Care How-To-Implement Toolkit (How-To-Implement Toolkit) that facilitates implementation of the 6BBs program without external support.
For background information, go to About AHRQ's Six Building Blocks: A Team-Based Approach to Improving Opioid Management in Primary Care Program.
Funding
The Six Building Blocks: A Team-Based Approach to Improving Opioid Management in Primary Care (6BBs or Building Blocks) program was originally created by the WWAMI region Practice Research Network, funded by the Institute of Translational Health Sciences (UL1 TR002319). AHRQ facilitated expansion of the 6BBs program through grants: R18 HS23750-01, R18 HS23750-02, and R18 HS23750-0.
Further funding for the Building Blocks program was provided by Washington State Department of Health subcontract (HED23124) of Cooperative U17CE002734, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additional support for the 6BBs program came from the Washington State Department of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the Washington State’s Olympic Communities of Health.
AHRQ also contracted with Abt Associates—in collaboration with the University of Washington and Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute—to develop the "Six Building Blocks: A Team-Based Approach to Improving Opioid Management in Primary Care How-To-Implement Toolkit"; this work was done under Contract No. HHSP233201500013I, "Evaluating and Implementing the Six Building Blocks Team Approach to Improve Opioid Management in Primary Care."
