Measurement & Reporting
Quality Field Notes features key lessons learned by regional Alliances of clinicians, patients, and payers in Aligning Forces for Quality communities as they work to transform local health care and provide models for national reform. The latest topic in this series focuses on public reporting. The reports are important because they help patients make informed choices, and help physicians understand how to improve their performance. For the past eight years, Aligning Forces for...
Quality Field Notes features key lessons learned by regional Alliances of clinicians, patients, and payers in Aligning Forces for Quality communities as they work to transform local health care and provide models for national reform. The latest topic in this series focuses on regional collaboratives. Regional collaboratives provide unlikely partners—including purchasers, payers, consumer advocates, clinicians, and others—a neutral setting in which collective goals and actionable strategies can be established. For the past eight years...
A new report has just been published by MN Community Measurement that allows consumers for the first time to compare the cost of care at medical groups across the state. Costs from more than 1.5 million patients were included in the report, which is the nation’s most comprehensive look at the total cost of care. Information is available for 115 medical groups, representing 1,052 clinics across Minnesota and in neighboring communities on MNHealthScores.org.
The average monthly cost of medical care per patient...
To get the collaborative approach working, Cleveland’s Alliance had to overcome some history, according to J.B. Silvers. First, the approach was “just trust the doctor”—which, needless to say, did not work well. The second phase was to trust the managers and the free market to fix the system, but that resulted in managed care and subsequent frustration. Finally, a collaborative model emerged in Cleveland, and it has been a success. Cleveland focused on primary care, celebrated victories, and had trusted data because of the uptake of electronic medical systems. The...
The first statewide report in the nation to measure Choosing Wisely® recommendations finds that patients in Washington may be exposed to care they don’t need—and potential harm. The report, Less Waste, Less Harm: Choosing Wisely in Washington State, offers county-by-county results for nine different Choosing Wisely recommendations. To support physicians seeking to integrate Choosing Wisely recommendations into their practices, the Washington State Choosing Wisely Task Force has developed an action manual that outlines eight steps for leading change that include...
The Humboldt Alliance’s work to improve public reporting and transparency in health quality metrics was recently featured in the Redwood Times. Aligning Forces Humboldt, in partnership with the Humboldt Del Norte Independent Practice Association, has launched a new webpage to help patients in Humboldt find the best primary care for themselves and their families. The webpage was designed to make it easy to search and compare primary care doctors' offices based on how well doctors provide certain aspects of care, services, tests,...
The Oregon Health Care Quality Corporation (Q Corp), the leader of the AF4Q Oregon initiative, recently released the nation's first public reports on the quality of regional primary care providers including Medicare data, offering consumers more comprehensive information. The new reports are published on Q-Corp's website, www.PartnerforQualityCare.org.
Previously, Q Corp public reports gave consumers access to information on care from the Oregon Health Authority, 12 of Oregon's largest...
The quality improvement (QI) work of MN Community Measurement (MNCM) was featured in the August 2014 edition of regional medical journal Minnesota Medicine, published by the Minnesota Medical Association.
Since 2011, all Minnesota clinics and hospitals have had to submit their quality improvement numbers annually for a variety of measures to MN Community Measurement. In addition, some submit them to payers, who use the numbers to determine reimbursements. Some even use the information to determine compensation...
New data from the Cincinnati Alliance shows that diabetes management in the region has greatly improved since 2010. Thirty-five percent of patients with diabetes in the greater Cincinnati area are now in control of their disease, as compared to 29 percent in the previous reporting period. The six percentage-point change means 3,600 more Greater Cincinnati diabetes patients are managing their condition to optimal results. The measure looks at blood pressure, cholesterol, A1C, smoking, and daily aspirin use goals. Patients who achieve all five diabetes goals are...
Minnesota health care leaders are building on quality measurement and improvement efforts—including reductions in avoidable hospital readmissions that led to $70 million in savings—to tackle the important, but tough, task of measuring how much an individual health care episode costs. These efforts are led by MN Community Measurement, one of RWJF’s Aligning Forces for Quality communities, which has convened disparate health care stakeholders over the years to measure everything from the management of diabetes to the patient experience.
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