Assessment of Readiness for Chronicity in Health Care Organizations (ARCHO 1.0)

The ARCHO is a tool that enables healthcare organisations to self-assess their implementation of models for the management of chronic conditions. This questionnaire can help ascertain how well geared your organisation is towards prevention and the management of chronic patients and measure its performance with respect to certain dimensions, making this a valuable tool for identifying weak areas and, in turn, for improving the organisation.

The ARCHO is an instrument for self-assessment which can be used in a variety of contexts and across a range of organisational levels. Specifically, it can be used at all decision-making levels: macro, meso and micro; and in all healthcare levels.
It should be taken into account that not all interventions considered in the ARCHO are equally applicable at all levels and, as such, results should be viewed in context. For instance, some of the Dimension 1 interventions, Organisation of the Health System, are  ore meaningful at macro levels, i.e., where policies  and strategies are formulated and resources allocated, while some in Dimension 4, Self-Management, are more relevant at the micro levels, in relation to the activity of healthcare professionals. The interventions in Dimension 3, Health Care Model, although relevant
to all levels, are particularly applicable at the meso level with regards to the management of healthcare organisations, hospitals and programmes.
On the other hand, the ARCHO offers the opportunity to integrate assessments from the macro, meso and micro levels in order to build up an overall picture of the system.