Real-Time Data Making a Difference

Cincinnati Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q), led by the Health Collaborative, is putting data to work to improve diabetes care among its patients. Starting in 2009, the Health Collaborative brought a group of physicians together to discuss what public reporting measures would be considered valuable to improving patient care. With the prevalence of diabetes in the Cincinnati area higher than the national average, the group chose to focus on those outcomes first. Physicians were provided with a “daily dashboard” of data. Dr. Michael Trombley, family physician at Mercy Health, said, “With real-time data we’ve been able to track if the changes we’ve made have been effective in improving patient care.” In 2011 physicians were given five additional measures on their patients (the D5): blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar levels, tobacco use, and aspirin use. With the available data, the group of Cincinnati physicians has been successful in improving quality indicators of their patients by 27 percent.