Physician Leadership Program-Quality Improvement & Why it Matters

Quality Improvement & Why it Matters - Article 6

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This article discusses the importance of quality improvement and performance measurement in healthcare, particularly in the field of psychiatry. The Institute of Medicine defines high-quality healthcare as services that increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge. However, studies have shown that there is often a gap between the care that is recommended and the care that is actually delivered.<br /><br />Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines provide recommendations for optimizing patient management based on current professional knowledge. These guidelines are available for many major mental health and substance use disorders. However, there is often a gap between the care recommended in these guidelines and the care that is actually delivered.<br /><br />Several factors contribute to this gap, including clinician-related factors and factors related to the healthcare system. Clinicians may lack awareness of the availability or content of evidence-based practice guidelines, or may be hesitant to change their practice based on new evidence. The healthcare system itself may be poorly organized, leading to less than desirable care in terms of timeliness, effectiveness, and appropriate use of resources.<br /><br />Improving the delivery of mental health care requires strategies such as policy changes, reducing system fragmentation, increasing clinician competencies, empowering consumers, implementing chronic disease case management and collaborative care models, and implementing clinical quality improvement and performance measurement.<br /><br />Performance measurement involves collection, analysis, and reporting of data to guide quality improvement activities. It can provide a baseline understanding of practice patterns, identify areas for improvement, assess the impact of improvement interventions, and monitor the process of care over time.<br /><br />Various stakeholders, including payers, government entities, consumers, and accreditation bodies, use performance measurement for various purposes, such as purchasing decisions, policy-making, and monitoring of regulations and standards.<br /><br />Efforts are underway in the United States to improve the quality of healthcare through initiatives such as the Value-Driven Health Care (VDHC) Initiative and the Physician Voluntary Reporting Program (PQRI). These initiatives aim to provide the public with information about the quality and cost of healthcare services.<br /><br />Clinicians can play a role in shaping these initiatives and should take the lead in quality improvement and performance measurement to ensure high-quality patient care. The article concludes with a call for clinicians to become involved in the early stages of performance measurement and quality improvement initiatives and to adopt evidence-based practices.

Keywords

quality improvement

performance measurement

healthcare

psychiatry

evidence-based guidelines

mental health

clinician competencies

chronic disease management

Value-Driven Health Care

Physician Voluntary Reporting Program