Dataset Information

Physician Assessment and Feedback During Quality Circle to Reduce Low-Value Services in Outpatients: a Pre-Post Quality Improvement Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The impact of the Choosing Wisely (CW) campaign is debated as recommendations alone may not modify physician behavior.

Objective

The aim of this study was to assess whether behavioral interventions with physician assessment and feedback during quality circles (QCs) could reduce low-value services.

Design and participants

Pre-post quality improvement intervention with a parallel comparison group involving outpatients followed in a Swiss-managed care network, including 700 general physicians (GPs) and 150,000 adult patients.

Interventions

Interventions included performance feedback about low-value activities and comparison with peers during QCs. We assessed individual physician behavior and healthcare use from laboratory and insurance claims files between August 1, 2016, and October 31, 2018.

Main measures

Main outcomes were the change in prescription of three low-value services 6 months before and 6 months after each intervention: measurement of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prescription rates of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and statins.

Key results

Among primary care practices, a QC intervention with physician feedback and peer comparison resulted in lower rates of PPI prescription (pre-post mean prescriptions per GP 25.5 ± 23.7 vs 22.9 ± 21.4, p value<0.01; coefficient of variation (Cov) 93.0% vs 91.0%, p=0.49), PSA measurement (6.5 ± 8.7 vs 5.3 ± 6.9 tests per GP, p<0.01; Cov 133.5% vs 130.7%, p=0.84), as well as statins (6.1 ± 6.8 vs 5.6 ± 5.4 prescriptions per GP, p<0.01; Cov 111.5% vs 96.4%, p=0.21). Changes in prescription of low-value services among GPs who did not attend QCs were not statistically significant over this time period.

Conclusion

Our results demonstrate a modest but statistically significant effect of QCs with educative feedback in reducing low-value services in outpatients with low impact on coefficient of variation. Limiting overuse in medicine is very challenging and dedicated discussion and real-time review of actionable data may help.

SUBMITTER: Kherad O

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8390713 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:ImportanceFacing new financial incentives to reduce unnecessary spending, health care organizations may attempt to reduce wasteful care by influencing physician practices or selecting more cost-effective physicians. However, physicians' role in determining the use of low-value services has not been well described.ObjectivesTo quantify variation in provision of low-value health care services among primary care physicians and to estimate the proportion of variation attributable to physician characteristics that may be used to predict performance.Design, setting, and participantsThis retrospective analysis included national Medicare fee-for-service claims of 3 159 834 beneficiaries served by 41 773 generalist physicians from January 1, 2008, through December 31, 2013 (data were analyzed in 2016 through 2018). Multilevel modeling was used to estimate the extent of variation in service use across physicians within their region and provider organization, adjusted for patient clinical and sociodemographic characteristics and sampling variation. The proportion of variation attributable to physician characteristics that may be used to predict performance (age, sex, academic degree, professorship, publication record, trial investigation, grant receipt, pharmaceutical or device manufacturer payment, and panel size) was estimated via additional regression analysis.Main outcomes and measuresAnnual count per beneficiary of 17 primary care-associated services that provide minimal clinical benefit.ResultsAmong the 3 159 834 beneficiaries (58.3% women; mean [SD] age, 73.2 [11.0] years) served by 41 773 physicians (74.9% men; mean [SD] age, 48.0 [10.1] years), the mean annual rate of low-value services was 33.1 services per 100 beneficiaries. Considerable variation across physicians within the same region was found (SD, 8.8 [95% CI, 8.7-8.9]; 90th:10th percentile ratio, 2.03 [95% CI, 2.01-2.06]) and across physicians within the same organization (SD, 6.1 [95% CI, 6.0-6.2]; 90th:10th percentile ratio, 1.61 [95% CI, 1.60-1.63]). The corresponding rates at the 10th percentile of physicians within region and within organization respectively were 21.8 and 25.3 services per 100 beneficiaries. Observable physician characteristics accounted for only 4.4% of physician variation within region and 1.4% of physician variation within organization.Conclusions and relevancePhysician practices may substantially contribute to low-value service use, which is prevalent even among the least wasteful physicians. Because little variation is predicted by measured physician characteristics, direct measures of low-value care provision may aid organizational efforts to encourage high-value practices.

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