Evaluation of a Virtual Learning Collaborative to Integrate Palliative Care Into Routine Oncology Practice.

PURPOSE: The integration of palliative care into usual oncology care is a best practice, but implementation can be challenging. METHODS: We convened a virtual learning collaborative (VLC) of oncology practices with a focus on integrating palliative care. The entire program was virtual, with teams meeting via online Webinar and conference call and accessing content via an online portal. Because of the need to pause and retool after the first 5 months, the VLC evolved into 2 phases, with feedback after the first phase informing the second. We primarily evaluated the reaction of participants and project team members after the completion of the VLC using 2 quantitative surveys (after each phase) and semistructured interviews with participants. RESULTS: A total of 24 oncology practices entered the VLC. Evaluation after each of 2 phases was conducted. For the first evaluation, 67% of respondents agreed a quality improvement coach was helpful to complete the program; 61% agreed a palliative care expert was helpful. The most common reasons for withdrawal involved organizational and VLC factors. Organizational factors included: time constraints, personnel changes (turnover), loss of the champion, and lack of team engagement. Twenty-two active participants and 8 former participants completed the second survey. Of those, 79% agreed the experience with the VLC was valuable, and 74% agreed the virtual delivery mode was useful. We identified 3 themes to drive future improvements related to structure, engagement, and content. CONCLUSION: VLCs are a potential mechanism to disseminate information and facilitate learning in oncology. Further study of program characteristics that promote acceptance of VLCs are needed.

Exceptions to outpatient quality measures for coronary artery disease in electronic health records.

BACKGROUND: Physicians report outpatient quality measures from data in electronic health records to facilitate care improvement and qualify for incentive payments. OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency and validity of exceptions to quality measures and to test a system for classifying the reasons for these exceptions. DESIGN: Cross-sectional observational study. SETTING: 5 internal medicine or cardiology practices. PARTICIPANTS: 47,075 patients with coronary artery disease between 2006 and 2007. MEASUREMENTS: Counts of adherence with and exceptions to 4 quality measures, on the basis of automatic reports of recommended drug therapy by computer software and separate manual reviews of electronic health records. RESULTS: 3.5% of patients who had a drug recommended had an exception to the drug and were not prescribed it (95% CI, 3.4% to 3.7%). Clinicians did prescribe the recommended drug for many other patients with exceptions. In 538 randomly selected records, 92.6% (CI, 90.3% to 94.9%) of the exceptions reported automatically by computer software were also exceptions during manual review. Most medical exceptions were clinical contraindications, drug allergies, or drug intolerances. In 592 randomly selected records, an unreported exception or a drug prescription was found during manual review for 74.6% (CI, 71.1% to 78.1%) of patients for whom automatic reporting recorded a quality failure. LIMITATION: The study used a convenience sample of practices, nonstandardized data extraction methods, only drug-related quality measures, and no financial incentives. CONCLUSION: Exceptions to recommended therapy occur infrequently and are usually valid. Physicians frequently prescribed drugs even when exceptions were present. Automated reports of quality failure often miss critical information. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Electronic health record systems: the vehicle for implementing performance measures.

Advances in information technology and recent national directives have the potential to support dramatic improvements in health care. Two key components are the implementation of functional electronic health record systems and widely accepted, evidence-based clinical performance measures for physicians. Midwest Heart Specialists, a 55-physician cardiovascular group at 14 locations in northern Illinois, has utilized an outpatient electronic health record system since 1997. Since 2003, the group has integrated cardiovascular measurement sets developed by the American Medical Association-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement into its electronic health record system. With this integration, the group was able to capture data needed for internal quality assessment and improvement as part of routine outpatient care without the need for additional resources. Critical disease-management data for decision support are available continuously, resulting in improvements in health care. The reporting of these standardized data could be the foundation to support quality-based reimbursement strategies and physician office-based disease-management strategies.