Is it possible to improve health care quality and reduce costs? The Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) initiative in Greater Boston, operated by Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP), says the answer is yes—and the Alliance has identified a key starting point.
Studies (e.g., Wennberg and others) in clinician practice patterns have clearly demonstrated wide, unexplained variation in medical and surgical services, resulting in higher costs and lower quality.
These studies sparked the idea for MHQP’s Practice Pattern Variation Analysis (PPVA) Collaborative Multi-Stakeholder Project. The Alliance was selected to spearhead the project based on its previous successes with collaborative statewide measurement initiatives in Massachusetts. The goal of the project is to implement a statewide evidence-based analysis, reporting, and improvement program to deepen clinicians’ and other stakeholders’ understanding of practice variation that may suggest overuse or underuse of medical services.
The conversations the Alliance’s PPVA initiative is having will lead to changes in behavior through engaging clinicians in variation-focused quality improvement initiatives, developing evidence-based community standards, promoting specialty society discussions, and other activities that will positively impact the cost and quality of care provided to patients.
