Publicly Reported Quality-Of-Care Measures Influenced Wisconsin Physician Groups to Improve Performance

21 Mar 2013

A team of researchers led by Dr. Geoffrey Lamb, MD, professor of internal medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, published their findings on the efficacy of public reporting of quality-of-care measures in the March 2013 edition of Health Affairs. The researchers analyzed 14 publicly reported quality-of-care measures from 2004 to 2009 from the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ), leader of the AF4Q initiative in Wisconsin. The team examined data from seventeen physician groups, which represented 409 clinics. Dr. Lamb’s team 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. Blood pressure control improved by nine percent as well.

"Our findings show that voluntary reporting of quality measures helps drive improvement for participants, which should lead to better healthcare for our patients,” said Dr. Lamb. "Furthermore, these results suggest that large group practices are willing to engage in quality improvement efforts in response to that public reporting.” The findings make an important contribution to building the evidence base that public reporting drives improvement in ambulatory care. Public reporting of how physicians and hospitals perform in quality of care measures leads to improved care for patients.  The article is available at http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/32/3/536.abstract
 
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