Quality and Performance Initiatives
The implementation and integration of information systems in traditional healthcare data processing and archiving has not only facilitated inter-communication, but also has the potential to develop intra- and inter-organizational benchmarking methodology focused on the improvement of quality of care. The inception of performance and quality measures can be based on national standards, with a trending and modification based on the patient specific population. The systematic utilization of information systems can be developed into a comparative performance measurement system that can analyze across disease, provider, and region specific indicators.
A compilation of standardized and customized quality and performance measures will be facilitated by the real-time processing of clinical data. The readily accessible data source is generated by payer claims data queried on specific performance measures. The implementation of quality and performance initiatives will be adjunct to specific provider and disease manifestations, allowing for iterative benchmarking based on trends of quality of care, patient responsiveness, and treatment modalities.
Regional Quality and Performance Standardization
As the processing of quality and performance initiatives becomes streamlined across provider and payer groupings within a region, this will enable an information channeling that will bridge across numerous definitions and expected outcomes, while creating a method to distinguish and analyze metrics in grouping and individualizing regions. As the regionalization of analyses expands across geographic areas, benchmarking will include a methodological approach to delineate trends, critical points, and overall demographic assessments. This iterative process will allow for a benchmarking system that is manageable across varying thresholds of expected and actual outcomes of healthcare delivery. This can range from indicators such as preventive screening, access to care, accuracy in diagnosis and treatment, and provider-payer specifications in delivery of care.
Quality Benchmarking as a Predictive Model for Healthcare Delivery
The utilization of quality and performance benchmarks can be integrated into already existing healthcare delivery processes, therefore making quality more than a milestone but also a parallel methodology that is dynamic in its assessments and implications. As a result, these processes that were initiated by quality benchmarking will not only continue with traditional practices, but will also offer thresholds that enable providers and payer systems to focus efforts on a continual and systematic review of inherent quality measures as related to healthcare delivery.