Review: feedback about practice patterns for measurable improvements in quality of care--a challenge for PROs under the Health Care Quality Improvement Program

Clin Perform Qual Health Care. 1995 Jan-Mar;3(1):15-22.

Abstract

The Health Care Quality Improvement Program (HCQIP), administered by the Health Care Financing Administration and implemented through Utilization and Quality Control Peer Review Organizations (PROs), is a new approach to monitoring the health care received by Medicare beneficiaries. The HCQIP shifts the focus of the PRO program from regulatory quality management to quality improvement principles. Through a series of cooperative projects, each focusing on a specific medical condition or procedure, PROs will conduct pattern analysis and share information about these analyses with health care organizations for the purpose of stimulating internal quality improvement efforts. As a fundamental shift in the way PROs have conducted quality-related activities, the HCQIP presents PROs with numerous challenges. This paper provides insight into one of their most significant challenges, the development of a model for constructive, nonevaluative feedback. Successful HCQIP feedback efforts may serve as models for quality management programs that will accompany national health care reform.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.
  • Education, Medical, Continuing / methods
  • Education, Medical, Continuing / organization & administration
  • Feedback*
  • Guidelines as Topic
  • Humans
  • Information Services
  • Medicare / standards*
  • Models, Educational
  • Planning Techniques
  • Practice Patterns, Physicians'
  • Professional Review Organizations / organization & administration*
  • Quality Assurance, Health Care*
  • United States