Profession
Clinical quality data for some Mass. physician groups now public
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 20, 2006
For the first time, the performance of 150 Massachusetts physician practice groups on 15 measures of clinical quality were made publicly available by a broad-based coalition known as Massachusetts Health Quality Partners. Formed in 1995, MHQP has previously released performance data only at the hospital and health-plan level.
The 5,500 primary care physicians involved in this study were measured in 2004 on how often they administered 15 recommended tests and treatments to patients covered by the state's five major private health plans. The data are available at the MHQP Web site (link).
Physician group performance is rated on a four-star system, with four stars meaning a group is in the top 10% nationally and one star indicating that a group performed below state and national quality averages.
Patients can search by physician group name or ZIP code. Bay State physicians scored well overall, placing in the top 10% nationally on nine of the 15 measures.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/03/20/prbf0320.htm.
