Physician evaluations, processes and operations remain ill defined

PORTLAND, Ore., March 19 /PRNewswire/ -- AllMed Healthcare Management announced the results of a survey that it recently completed on the subject of hospital peer review. Ninety-five medical staff leaders, quality assurance and risk managers from leading hospitals across the U.S. completed AllMed's Peer Review Scorecard.

"The survey results highlight areas for improvement in the way hospitals conduct peer review," said Skip Freedman, executive medical director at AllMed. "On the positive side, the survey indicates that medical staff and administrative leadership are visibly committed to continuous quality improvement, by-laws provide clear direction on peer review and hospitals are putting well-defined peer review processes into place. However, there are still many areas for improvement."

The Peer Review Scorecard is a self-assessment tool and survey that covers four broad areas that influence hospital peer review: culture, operations, practitioner evaluations and Joint Commission standards.

When questioned about culture, just 46.5 percent of the respondents said their practitioners know how they contribute to the quality of patient care. Slightly over 38 percent of them said that physicians view peer review as fair and objective. Only 26 percent agreed that their peer review process was proactive rather than reactive.

With regard to peer review operations, respondents were asked whether peer reviews were completed within 30 days after initiation and over 82 percent said they were not.

But, it was the area of practitioner evaluations that took some of the hardest hits by survey respondents. Sixty-nine percent indicate their medical staff falls short in investigating all performance deviations and taking action. Two-thirds believed their peer review process had inconsistently applied triggers for evaluations. Fifty-five percent noted that their hospita
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