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Open Access 01-08-2015 | Perspective

Quantity Over Quality: How the Rise in Quality Measures is Not Producing Quality Results

Authors: Michele L. Esposito, MD, Harry P. Selker, MD, MSPH, Deeb N. Salem, MD

Published in: Journal of General Internal Medicine | Issue 8/2015

Abstract

Over the past decade, quality measures (QMs) have been implemented nationally in order to establish standards aimed at improving the quality of care. With the expansion of their role in the Affordable Care Act and pay-for-performance, QMs have had an increasingly significant impact on clinical practice. However, adverse patient outcomes have resulted from adherence to some previously promulgated performance measures. Several of these QMs with unintended consequences, including the initiation of perioperative beta-blockers in noncardiac surgery and intensive insulin therapy for critically ill patients, were instituted as QMs years before large randomized trials ultimately refuted their use. The future of quality care should emphasize the importance of evidence-based, peer-reviewed measures.

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Title: Quantity Over Quality: How the Rise in Quality Measures is Not Producing Quality Results
Authors: Michele L. Esposito, MD
Harry P. Selker, MD, MSPH
Deeb N. Salem, MD
Publication date: 01-08-2015
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Journal of General Internal Medicine / Issue 8/2015
Print ISSN: 0884-8734
Electronic ISSN: 1525-1497
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-015-3278-6

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