Quality of Care Measures Improve Performance

06/03/2013

Public reporting of how physicians and hospitals perform in quality of care measures leads to improved care for patients.

The researchers led by Geoffrey C. Lamb, professor of internal medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, analyzed 14 publicly reported quality of care measures from 2004 to 2009 for the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality, a voluntary consortium of physician groups, and found that physician groups in the collaborative improved their performance during the study period on many measures.

Diabetes-related measures showed the most significant improvement, with three out of the six measures showing double-digit percentage gains. The other three measures showed improvement of two to nine percent. Blood pressure control improved by nine percent as well.

When asked about the public reporting and its effect on care, group practices indicated they were able to act on some, but not all, of the quality measures reported forcing them to prioritize their efforts.

"Our findings show that voluntary reporting of quality measures helps drive improvement for participants, which should lead to better healthcare for our patients," said Lamb. "Furthermore, these results suggest that large group practices are willing to engage in quality improvement efforts in response to that public reporting."

REHACARE.de; Source: Medical College of Wisconsin