Open AccessMeasuring What Matters: Beyond Quality Performance Measures in Caring for Adults with Obesity
Author(s) -
Elizabeth L. Ciemins,
Vaishali Joshi,
Deborah B. Horn,
Joe Nadglowski,
Abhilasha Ramasamy,
John K. Cuddeback
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
population health management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.998
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1942-7905
pISSN - 1942-7891
DOI - 10.1089/pop.2020.0109
Subject(s) - overweight , obesity , medicine , context (archaeology) , health care , primary care , baseline (sea) , weight management , quality management , gerontology , family medicine , operations management , management system , paleontology , oceanography , geology , economics , biology , economic growth
Obesity is a chronic disease that poses serious health and societal burdens. Although guidelines exist for obesity management in primary care, evaluating the success of obesity treatment programs is hampered by lack of established, robust quality measures. This study aimed to develop, and test for feasibility, measures for operational tracking, quality performance, and patient-centered care in the context of a national collaborative to develop a model for obesity management in the US primary care setting. The authors developed and evaluated 7 measures used to track the care of patients with overweight or obesity (n = 226,727 at baseline) receiving care within 10 health care organizations (HCOs). Measure categories included: (1) operational tracking (obesity/overweight prevalence and prevalence of obesity-related complications); (2) quality performance (obesity diagnosis, change in weight over time, anti-obesity medication prescriptions, and assessment of obesity-related complications); and (3) patient-centered care (patient-reported outcomes). Measures were tested for feasibility, variability across HCOs, ability to detect differences over time, and value to the HCOs. All measures were feasible to collect, provided value to the participating HCOs, and demonstrated variation and ability to detect differences over time (eg, rates of documented diagnosis of obesity classes 1, 2, and 3 increased from 29%, 46%, and 66%, respectively, at baseline to 35%, 53%, and 71% at study end). This study confirmed the feasibility and perceived value of 7 operational, performance, and patient-centered measures collected in primary care practices in 10 HCOs over an 18-month period.