Massachusetts Health Quality Partners Issues 2008 Report on Quali...(actors related topatients' chronic condi...),Health

Date:4/2/2008

actors related to patients' chronic conditions are being managed. For instance, 47 percent of diabetic patients in this report are keeping their LDL (bad) cholesterol levels below the recommended threshold of 100, and 66 percent are meeting the standard for blood pressure control. In all of the six outcome measures reported, statewide performance was above the NCQA national 50th percentile, but only one was at the 90th percentile - avoiding poor blood sugar levels (HbA1c above 9) by patients with diabetes. [Editorial Note: See attached checklist for how doctors and patients with diabetes can work together to control high blood pressure.]

"MHQP's outcome measures highlight how important it is for physicians and patients to work in partnership on health improvement," said Marilyn Schlein Kramer, Executive Director of the Partnership for Healthcare Excellence. "Physicians can provide diagnoses, test results, prescriptions and recommendations that will help patients control their chronic conditions; patients can then engage in addressing the often difficult clinical and lifestyle changes that will improve their own health."

Report addresses costly overuse of care

The MHQP report includes data on the appropriate use of antibiotics for the treatment of childhood colds and other upper respiratory infections and imaging studies such as X-rays, CT scans and MRIs for assessing acute low back pain in adults. Health experts agree that overuse or misuse of tests, procedures and medications can contribute to rising health care costs without improving quality of care, and, in some cases, at the expense of quality.

-- MHQP found that Massachusetts physicians avoid the inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics 90 percent of the time, which means that one child in ten who is taken to the doctor for a cold, cough or upper respiratory infection receives an antibiotic prescription that is unnecessary.

-- The NCQA standard for adults with acute l
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SOURCE Massachusetts Health Quality Partners Copyright©2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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