Physician Performance Assessment: Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease

• In Event: Measurement of Reasoning Skills in the Health Professions

Abstract

Given the rising burden of healthcare costs, both patients and healthcare purchasers are interested in discerning which physicians deliver quality care. We examined performance of physicians in preventive cardiology care, evaluated measurement properties of a composite score derived from a set of evidence-based clinical measures, and determined a benchmark for performance. We used chart data from 811 physicians with 25 patients per physician. Reliability of the composite was 0.87 and the classification accuracy index was high (0.98). The mean composite score was 74% (SD = 12.0) and 2.7% of the physicians fell below the minimally-acceptable level (47.38%). We found an effective means for assessing physician performance in clinical practice by providing relative feedback with the hope of improving patient care.

Authors

• Rebecca S. Lipner, American Board of Internal Medicine

• Weifeng Weng, American Board of Internal Medicine

• Brian J. Hess, American Board of Internal Medicine