Monday, October 24, 2011

Measuring quality improves doctors' care, study finds


Wisconsin collaborative says disclosing rankings pushes doctors to try harder 

By Guy Boulton of the Journal Sentinel
Oct. 22, 2011

The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality was founded on a simple premise: To improve the quality of health care, you must be able to measure it.
It is one of the underlying principles in the efforts to provide better care to patients.
Yet the premise that tracking the quality of care truly prods physicians to change the way they practice medicine has been more accepted than studied.
The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality, started by a group of large physician practices and health care systems in 2003, now can be cited as an example that it does.
A study led by Geoffrey Lamb, a professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin, compared the care given to diabetic patients by physician practices that belong to the collaborative with the care given by physicians in Iowa and South Dakota as well as national performance measures.
.....more

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