Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

15 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT & MEASUREMENT 74% of Physicians, Health Plan Executives Say Quality Measures Are Too Complex By Shannon Barnet A physician and health plan executive survey from Quest Diagnostics and Inovalon shows both parties believe there are barriers to the healthcare industry's adoption of value-based care, including overly complex quality measures. Quest is a diagnostic insights and innovations company and Inovalon is a technology company that uses cloud-based an- alytics to help clients improve clinical and quality outcomes. Regina Corso Consulting conducted the online survey on behalf of Quest Diagnostics and Inovalon in May. All total, 450 people responded, 300 of whom were private practice primary care physicians with a hospital affiliation and 150 of whom were health plan executives. Highlighted below are five findings from the survey. 1. Although most respondents agreed that quality measures are "useful in improving care," nearly three-quarters (74 per- cent) of physicians and health plan executives said quality measures are too complex and difficult to achieve. 2. Access to complete patient data is lacking. Roughly two- thirds (65 percent) of physicians said they do not have all the healthcare information they need about their patients. 3. Physicians cited the following three limitations to having better information: • Patients can have many physicians who may not share information across EHRs or other channels — 78 percent • Lack of interoperability — 74 percent • No way to integrate into current workflow — 37 percent 4. Sixty-four percent of the respondents said physicians do not have the tools necessary to succeed in a value-based care system. 5. Eighty-five percent of physicians were "likely" or "very likely" to use a tool that provides on-demand patient-spe- cific data to identify gaps in quality, risk and utilization as well as medical history insight within the clinical workflow in real time. "[The study] reveals that complexity and incomplete access to patient information may be greater obstacles to adoption than previously realized," said Harvey M. Kaufman, MD, senior medical director of Quest Diagnos- tics. "We hope the study's findings spark greater collabo- ration by providers and health plans and dialogue about new solutions to improve quality outcomes and reduce overall costs." n CMS Officials to Hospitals: Stop Misusing HCAHPS Measures By Heather Punke I n an opinion piece in JAMA in May, three officials from CMS urged hospital leaders to stop disaggregating mea- sures from HCAHPS for internal use. According to Lemeneh Tefera, MD; William Lehrman, PhD; and Patrick Conway, MD, all from CMS, HCAHPS "provides valid and reliable measures of hospital quality that can compel hospitals to assess and improve patient experience" — when used correctly. However, the authors note many hospitals are taking HCAHPS responses, disaggregating them and then linking them to finan- cial incentives for individual physicians or physician groups. "This is contrary to the survey's design and policy aim," the au- thors wrote. "HCAHPS is not suitable for evaluating or incentiv- izing individuals or groups within a hospital." Instead, the survey is designed to evaluate the entire hospital experience. Drs. Tefera, Lehrman and Conway also addressed the allega- tions that HCAHPS' pain control questions have urged phy- sicians to prescribe more opioids, contributing to the opioid addiction crisis in the U.S. They vehemently denied such an effect, saying "there is no empirical evidence that failing to prescribe opioids lowers a hospital's HCAHPS scores." Overall, the opinion piece urged hospital officials to use HCAHPS results "responsibly" because failing to do so "en- tail[s] risk." n BECKER'S CEO + CFO ROUNDTABLE november 7-9, 2016 swissotel, chicago Call 1.800.417.2035 or email registration@beckershealthcare.com keynotes by dr. ronald dephinho, dr. charles w. sorenson, dr. richard gilfillan, catherine jacobson, warner thomas & jonathan bush

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