Q-Centrix report shows value-based care and quality program participation on the rise, exposes shortages of resources critical for meeting quality goals

By Q-Centrix | January 8, 2019

A new report from leading healthcare quality solutions provider Q-Centrix signals continued growth in value-based care and other quality initiatives, including an estimated 4% annual increase in value-based payments and an estimated 7% average annual increase in participation in major clinical registry programs.

The report, made available today, examines quality program participation and resource needs across three main areas of healthcare quality reporting: regulatory, infection prevention, and clinical registries.

“This latest quality industry report suggests growth in value-based payments is expected to continue amid an ever-evolving quality reporting environment,” said Q-Centrix CEO Milton Silva-Craig. “As changes in best medical practices and government regulation and policy updates influence annual additions and removals of performance measures, and hospitals’ desires around performance improvement shift, it is critical we gain a clearer understanding of facility involvement with respect to quality reporting. This report helps us to do that.”

The report estimates the percentage of all care delivery associated with value-based payment to reach 22% by the start of 2019 – comprising nearly a quarter of all care delivery payments and up from 18% at the start of 2018. It also projects the cumulative number of participation instances across the top 20 major inpatient clinical registries will grow from 18,432 in 2017 to 23,773 in 2021 – an average annual increase of 7%. These estimates appear in a special section of the report that serves as an update to a clinical registry growth analysis commissioned by Q-Centrix in 2017.

The report also shows that four of the five most-participated-in registries in 2017 focused on care and/or processes related to cardiovascular disease – and that the American College of Surgeons Cancer registry topped the list in 2017 with 5,039 instances of participation.

“Clinical registries are widely considered by clinicians and healthcare quality experts to be the gold standard in clinical quality data,” said Silva-Craig. “The fact that the top five most-participated-in registries address the nation’s two deadliest diseases is a strong clue that hospitals and healthcare providers are eager to ensure they are providing the highest quality of care in these specialties, which have a significant impact on public health.”

Other notable findings in the special section:
State level registries continue to emerge – the latest data indicates there are 23 programs active across eight states.
The average time it takes to abstract health record data for reporting to registries that have recently transitioned to newer versions of their data collection forms has increased 19% in the last two years.
Certain registries are intensifying data collection requirements, increasing the complexity of registry participation, while at the same time average spending per hospital on registry abstraction services is rising.

“Not only can we anticipate an increase in quality program participation, we can expect it to grow faster than previously thought,” adds Silva-Craig. “Looking at all these factors together, the increasing need for new and more-efficient approaches to quality reporting becomes utterly apparent. Our impression is when hospitals are able to streamline their quality reporting processes, that’s when they have the best chance of getting and staying ahead of their quality reporting demands.”

The report also highlights a potential need for more infection preventionists (IPs). In 2017, 750 hospitals saw their Medicare reimbursements lowered. A comparison in the report of the number of U.S. hospital beds and older and newer IP staffing recommendations suggests there is a potential shortage of approximately 5,400 IPs across U.S. hospitals.

Additional information in the report:

  • The top four most reported electronic clinical quality measures
  • The top five most used infection prevention screening modules
  • A commentary on centralization of healthcare quality reporting

About Q-Centrix:

Q-Centrix aims to measurably improve the quality and safety of patient care in the U.S. through the use of its market-leading technology platform, Q-Apps, that augments the clinical intelligence and efficiency of the industry’s largest and broadest team of nurse-educated, Quality Information Specialists. Processing in excess of 2 million quality data transactions annually, Q-Centrix is a comprehensive quality partner to hundreds of hospitals, providing quality data management solutions, including quality data capture, surveillance, measure calculations, analysis, reporting, and improvement solutions. For more information about Q-Centrix, visit www.q-centrix.com.

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