Physician Assessment and Feedback During Quality Circle to Reduce Low-Value Services in Outpatients: a Pre-Post Quality Improvement Study.
J Gen Intern Med
; 36(9): 2672-2677, 2021 09.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33555552
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The impact of the Choosing Wisely (CW) campaign is debated as recommendations alone may not modify physician behavior.OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this study was to assess whether behavioral interventions with physician assessment and feedback during quality circles (QCs) could reduce low-value services. DESIGN ANDPARTICIPANTS:
Pre-post quality improvement intervention with a parallel comparison group involving outpatients followed in a Swiss-managed care network, including 700 general physicians (GPs) and 150,000 adult patients.INTERVENTIONS:
Interventions included performance feedback about low-value activities and comparison with peers during QCs. We assessed individual physician behavior and healthcare use from laboratory and insurance claims files between August 1, 2016, and October 31, 2018. MAINMEASURES:
Main outcomes were the change in prescription of three low-value services 6 months before and 6 months after each intervention measurement of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prescription rates of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and statins. KEYRESULTS:
Among primary care practices, a QC intervention with physician feedback and peer comparison resulted in lower rates of PPI prescription (pre-post mean prescriptions per GP 25.5 ± 23.7 vs 22.9 ± 21.4, p value<0.01; coefficient of variation (Cov) 93.0% vs 91.0%, p=0.49), PSA measurement (6.5 ± 8.7 vs 5.3 ± 6.9 tests per GP, p<0.01; Cov 133.5% vs 130.7%, p=0.84), as well as statins (6.1 ± 6.8 vs 5.6 ± 5.4 prescriptions per GP, p<0.01; Cov 111.5% vs 96.4%, p=0.21). Changes in prescription of low-value services among GPs who did not attend QCs were not statistically significant over this time period.CONCLUSION:
Our results demonstrate a modest but statistically significant effect of QCs with educative feedback in reducing low-value services in outpatients with low impact on coefficient of variation. Limiting overuse in medicine is very challenging and dedicated discussion and real-time review of actionable data may help.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Clínicos Gerais
/
Participação nas Decisões
Tipo de estudo:
Guideline
/
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Adult
/
Humans
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Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Gen Intern Med
Assunto da revista:
MEDICINA INTERNA
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Suíça