Quality Measures That Don’t Improve Quality (See the Problem?)

From scorecards to solutions in healthcare quality.

This thought hit me late the other night and I couldn’t shake it: we call them “quality measures,” but do they really improve quality?

Hospitals are required to submit a ton of quality measures. But here’s the thing, most of that data? It only tells you who was in the population and what your performance rate was. That’s it.

So, let me ask: how many hospitals can actually drive meaningful change with just that?

If these measures are only written to tell you how you performed, how are they supposed to help you improve?

As eCQMs take over as the main source of quality reporting, maybe it’s time we flip the script. What if we designed them not just as performance metrics, but as tools for improvement?

Take CMS506 (Safe Use of Opioids - Concurrent Prescribing). Right now it tells you how many patients were discharged with two or more opioids. Helpful? Sure. But imagine if it also told you:

• Which providers were prescribing

• Which unit the patient was discharged from

• What procedures were performed

• What meds they came in on

That data is already in the EHR. It’s literally right there. So why are eCQMs written just to spit out a score, when the same logic could give us insights for targeted interventions?

Feels like a win-win to me.

That’s my take, but I’d love to hear yours. Are these measures helping us improve, or just keeping score?

-KB

(And if you’re wondering how Medisolv’s Advisory Services team is helping hospitals bridge the quality measure gap, give me a shout. Happy to share what we’re up to.)

Medisolv's Advisory Services