The core of the score should be a set of clinically driven, scientifically valid and weighted calculations about quality indicators that pertain to patients who are having surgery, finding a physician or visiting a hospital. ~Concierge Medicine Today
ATLANTA, GA | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | OCTOBER 25, 2016 – Concierge Medicine Today, a news organization and the Concierge Medicine industry’s oldest national trade publication for the Concierge Medicine and Private Medicine marketplace, issued a statement, noting, “Anyone seeking medical care, along with their referring Physician, should have access to a Quality Score [a simple, three-digit number] that individually measures their local hospital facilities, and surgeons, at the Procedure Level.”
According to MPIRICA Health, a Washington-based healthcare quality transparency company that scores hospitals and surgeons based on actual outcomes for specific surgeries, “Quality Scores should be designed as an objective comparison of facilities and physicians, so it is essential that the quality measurements upon which the score is based are themselves objective, and that the underlying data is adjusted to account for providers who take on higher-risk cases.”
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Outcomes-based scoring is quite complex. The data on readmissions and patient mortality inside a hospital require no subjective interpretation, the data on complications however, is not as clearly documented. This is due to recording complications that require individual judgment. Coders, healthcare professionals and their patients may differ in their interpretation of events. As a result, complications may be recorded differently across facilities (or even by different coders within the same facility). Furthermore, even if codings were consistent, the codes themselves do not always separate a mild complication (like a simple infection) from a serious one that requires greater medical attention (like sepsis). Therefore, a time-tested, peer-reviewed methodology to account for complications must be integrated into Surgery Quality Scores.
“Concierge Medicine Today (CMT) is committed to transparency and the availability of information for patients to make informed decisions about their medical care” says Michael Tetreault, Editor of Concierge Medicine Today. “To accomplish this goal, objective quality measurements consisting of a set of clinically driven, scientifically valid and weighted calculations about quality indicators that matter to patients who are choosing a physician for their family, having surgery or need hospital care, must be simple to understand, objective, reliable, and complete. People deserve to have access to accurate information, especially when it concerns their health. Simply searching the web in today’s convoluted environment leads to inaccurate assumptions, misinterpretations, harms reputations and undermines the confidence that patients have in their physicians and local medical facilities they trusted.”
Tetreault adds, “It should take into consideration all of the important things that you should think about when planning for surgery and wrap them into a single performance score. The components of the Quality Score should also factor in and weigh important things like: Am I going to be in a hospital for a prolonged length of stay? What are my risks of complications? What are my chances of the ultimate poor outcome: death?”
Based on currently available data that are reported by hospitals, key measurements critical for evaluating quality should include: mortality; re-admissions; and complications.
CMT continues to support health care professionals and their patients in promoting and advocating for the transparency of information and trust that comes with having clinically driven, scientifically valid and weighted calculations pertaining to quality and making that information available and accessible to patients in a simple to understand format.
About Concierge Medicine Today
Concierge Medicine Today (CMT) is a news organization and the Concierge Medicine industry’s oldest national trade publication for the Concierge Medicine and Private, Membership Medicine marketplace. Its web site is the online destination for businesses, consumers, physicians, legislators, researchers and other stakeholders to learn about the history of this industry, various business aspects of the marketplace, trends, breaking news and more that drives the conversation that Concierge Medicine and free market healthcare delivery is creating on a national and international level. For more information, visit: http://www.ConciergeMedicineToday.org.
