Limitations of Quality Metrics
Even as we want to talk about ‘precision medicine’ and even as we want to measure quality using quantifiable processes and outcomes, we still have to admit that there are limitations to quality metrics. Because healthcare does not deal with machines but with people, there will always be subjective, poorly quantifiable elements to quality in healthcare.
There are several critical steps which can help bridge the gap between quality metrics and true quality in healthcare. These are patient-centered medial home, Medicare Advantage health plans, and Evidenced-based medicine. The foundation of quality healthcare, there is an emotional bond – a trust bond –between the healthcare provider and the patient. It is possible to fulfill all quality metrics without this bond; it is not possible to provide quality healthcare without it. That is why the patient-centered medical home (PC-MH), coupled with the fulfilling of quality metrics is the solution to the need for quality healthcare.
The genius of PC-MH is to discover the true implications of SETMA’s motto which was adopted in August, 1995, which is, ‘Healthcare Where Your Health is the Only Care’” It is to put the patient and their needs first. And, it is to include the patient as a member of the healthcare team. There are 8,760 hours in a year. If responsibility for a patient’s healthcare is seen as a ‘baton,’ the patient carries that ‘baton’ for over 8,700 hours a year. PC-MH promotes methods for effectively ‘passing the baton’ to the patient so that the patient’s healthcare does not suffer under the patient’s own supervision. SETMA has placed the patient’s healthcare at the center of our healthcare delivery in many ways. One way is that we developed The SETMA Foundation, through which we help provide funding for the care of our patients who cannot afford it. Our resources are meager in comparison with the need, but it is a start.
The following is one example of how PC-MH and the SETMA Foundation have worked together to produce quality healthcare. A patient came to the clinic angry, hostile and bitter and was found not to be a bad person but to be depressed because he could not work, could not afford his medication and was losing his eye sight. He left the clinic with The Foundation paying for his medications, giving him a gas card to get to our ADA certified DSME program, waiving the fees for the classes, helping him apply for disability, and getting him an appointment to an experimental program for preserving his eyesight. He returned in six weeks with something we could not prescribe. He had hope and joy. By the way, his diabetes was treated to goal for the first time in years. This is PC-MH; it is caring and it is humanitarianism. .
As the PC-MH is restoring the personal aspect of healthcare, the Medicare Advantage (MA) program and/or the Accountability of Care Organizations (ACO) are modifying the ‘piece’ payment system of healthcare. While the President has been convinced that Medicare Advantage is the problem; it is the solution. The supposed increase in the cost of Medicare Advantage is because it is being compared to traditional Medicare costs where the administrative cost of Medicare is not calculated in the formulae. There are bright examples of success with Medicare Advantage, success marked by quality outcomes and high patient satisfaction. That success also is marked by a dramatic change in the trajectory of health care cost while maintaining its quality.
The third piece to true healthcare transformation is including quality process and quality outcomes in the payment formula. There are fledgling programs such as the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) where healthcare providers are being paid for the demonstration of quality outcomes rather than just for piece work. The accountability of the pubic reporting of provider performance on quality measures completes this picture. This is why SETMA has begun quarterly reporting on our website of our providers’ performance on multiple quality metrics. Included in that reporting is the examination of whether disparities of care in ethnic and socio-economic groups have been eliminated.
Quality healthcare is a complex problem. Measureable processes and outcomes are only one part of that complexity. Communication, collaboration and collegiality between healthcare provider and patient, between healthcare provider and healthcare provider, between healthcare providers and other healthcare organizations are important aspects of that complexity also. Data and information sharing within the constraints of confidentiality add another layer of complexity. All of these aspects of healthcare quality can be addressed by technology but only when that technology is balanced by humanitarianism. .
The good news is that the right questions are being asked and historically in that setting .the right answers have been found.
