Most doctors slow to integrate quality data into their practices

Physicians in larger groups might have more financial flexibility to implement quality improvement methods.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. June 6, 2005.

Many physicians are not actively working to improve the quality of care in their practices, and smaller practices are less likely than larger ones to use data to boost quality care, according to a new study.

A survey of 1,837 physicians by the Commonwealth Fund showed that only one in three doctors has access to data about the quality of their clinical performances and one in three is involved in redesigning their systems to improve care.

Researchers said physicians are slow to adopt measures to boost quality and doctors are reluctant to publicly share information about the quality of care they provide.

"It's fine to have [quality] data but you have to integrate it in your daily routine," said Anne-Marie Audet, MD, vice president of the quality improvement program at the Commonwealth Fund and lead author of the study, which appeared in the May/June Health Affairs.

The study was intended to gauge physicians' involvement in quality improvement methods and used data from a national survey of physicians conducted in 2003.

Researchers said their findings show most physicians do not incorporate such quality methods into their practices. Doctors do not routinely use data for assessing their performance and they infrequently take part in quality redesign activities, according to the study.

Less than half of the doctors could easily generate a list of patients by certain age groups. About four in five doctors found it difficult or were unable to generate lists of their patients by lab results, making it more difficult to follow up with high-risk patients, the study said.