A new study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology examines quality measure documentation for inflammatory bowel disease in academic, community and private practice; their findings are bleak.
The American Gastroenterological Association established IBD quality measures in 2011, but limited implementation and compliance since then hindered effectiveness. The researchers examined 367 consecutive patients with IBD in academic practice, 217 in community practice and 199 in private practice. The groups were measured based on compliance with eight outcomes measures.
The researchers found:
1. The most frequently assessed core measures among all practice settings were:
• Tobacco abuse: 89.6 percent
• IBD location: 8.3 percent
• Corticosteroid-sparing therapy assessment: 70.8 percent
2. The least-frequently evaluated measures were:
• Pneumococcal immunization: 16.7 percent
• Bone loss: 25 percent
• Influenza immunization: 28 percent
3. There were 24 patients in the academic practice, none in the clinical practice and 22 in private practice who had all applicable core measures; that’s only 5.8 percent of the patients.
4. The factors associated with compliance to all core measures included the graduation year from fellowship, medical school graduation and total patient comorbidities.
5. None of the facilities measured reported center-specific checklists or discussions of the quality measures before the study period.
“Current documented compliance with the AGA quality measures is inadequate across all practice types — academic, community hospital and private practice,” concluded the study authors.