Claire Snyder and Gerard Anderson.
Journal of the American Medical Association
June 15, 2005, Vol. 293, Issue #23, pg. 2900-2907.
Review by: Linda Heun, Ph.D. <lheun@aacom.org>
The authors explored the relative impact of voluntary membership as a Quality Improvement Organization (QIOs) as set up by Medicare on fifteen quality indicators associated with improved patient outcomes. This is an important question given the approximately $200 million allocated by Medicare annually for quality improvement. The quality indicators related to prevention and treatment of five clinical areas prevalent among Medicare beneficiaries: atrial fibrillation, acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, pneumonia, and stroke.
Data from participating and nonparticipating hospitals in five states included the medical records of 750 Medicare beneficiaries per state in each of the designated clinical areas. The only statistically significant differences between the two groups was that participating hospitals improved more on the pneumonia immunization indicator than nonparticipating hospitals. The authors concluded that hospitals that participate in the QIO relationship are not more likely to show improvement.
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