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Improving the Quality of Care

While there may be many reasons to adopt health IT for health centers, other safety net providers and ambulatory care providers, the most important is to improve the quality of care for low income and uninsured individuals. As such, health IT applications such as disease registries and electronic health records (EHRs), have facilitated improvements in the care delivered to patients, including individuals with chronic illnesses, who are disproportionately represented among health center patients. Understanding and identifying changes in the delivery of care resulting from health IT adoption will guide health centers to develop and prioritize clinical goals and benchmarks, ultimately improving the quality and efficiency of care.

HRSA programs, such as the Health Disparities Collaborative, have over a decade of experience demonstrating the role of health IT in improving care to chronically ill individuals. In addition, independent organizations such as the Ambulatory Care Quality Association have developed clinical measures that can be used to gauge improvements in quality.

Related resources on quality improvement using health IT:

• HRSA Health Disparities Collaborative - Link to Healthcare Communities  website—the end product of the HRSA Health Disparities Collaborative.
• Information on the AQA starter set - Link to AHRQ web site for outline of Clinical Performance Measures for Ambulatory Care.
• The Role of Health Information Exchange in Helping Providers Access Their Performance on the AQA Starter Set (PDF - 2 MB )- PowerPoint presentation by Inland Northwest Health Services and Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative outlining HIE's role in implementation of the American Quality Initiative clinical performance measures to assess performance. (2007)
• The Promise of Personal Health Records for Quality Improvement (PDF - 380KB) - National Quality Forum issue brief discusses PHR use for quality improvement. (2007)
• Using Collaboration to Accelerate Quality Improvement (Power Point - 102KB)- California Primary Care Association Power Point presentation outlining quality improvement brought about by collaboration.
• AQA Principles of "Efficiency" Measures(Word - 30KB) - Brief document outlining American Quality Initiative Principles of "Efficiency" Measures - a subset of the general AQA Parameters for Selecting Measures for Physician Performance.  (2006)
• AQA Parameters for Selecting Measures for Physician Performance (Word - 35KB) - List of 15 parameters to be used in designing and selecting measures of physician performance. (2007)
• AQA Principles in the Use of Registries for Enhancing Quality of Care through Performance Measurement (Word - 33KB) - Brief discussion setting forth principles for the design, development, and use of information from existing and future data registries to enhance quality of care through performance measurement.  (2006)
• Tips for Using EHRs to Improve Quality of Care and Health Outcomes - HRSA OHITQ webinar