About the Data
Skip to: "About the Diabetes Data" | "About the Cardiovascular Health Data"
What is a primary care practice?
A primary care practice is a practice with doctors who specialize in Internal Medicine, Family Medicine or General Practice.
Why is this information important to me?
While it is easy to evaluate experiences that should be part of every doctor’s visit—getting care when needed, good communication and courteous and helpful office staff—other aspects, such as the quality of care that the primary care practice provides, are more difficult and require data to be collected, analyzed and reported.
You can use the primary care practice results on this website to:
- Learn what quality care is and what you should expect from your primary care doctor.
- Compare quality ratings of primary care practices in Greater Cincinnati, to see how well they provide diabetes and cardiovascular care.
- Help select a primary care practice for you and your family.
- Learn about things you can do to take charge of your health.
Collecting the Data
The gold standard for collecting and measuring clinical data is to take the information directly from patient charts. While all primary care practices follow strict data submission guidelines and specifications, the data collection varies from one practice to another. The practices use electronic medical records, paper charts, or a combination of both, to collect the data. Any personal identifiers from the patient charts are removed from the information to ensure that it complies with HIPAA regulations.
After collecting the information, the primary care practices voluntarily submit the clinic data to the Health Improvement Collaborative, to be used for measurement and public reporting. All participating primary care practices follow a rigorous process of data reporting and are independently audited to confirm accuracy.
Analyzing the Data
Staff from the Health Collaborative assists primary care practices in formatting and submitting their data to a secure web-based data portal. Upon submission, the secure data portal automatically analyzes the data according to clinical goals. Preliminary results are provided to the primary care practices and their physicians for review. The Health Collaborative staff validates the data and after passing an audit, the preliminary scores are finalized for public reporting.
Validating the Data
The Health Collaborative coordinates with primary care practices to randomly audit the submitted data. The practices do not know which charts will be audited, and according to the data submission guidelines, the data submitted must match the most recent data in the charts. If the data submitted were incorrect, an error is reported. The practices must pass an audit and be above the high standard for errors, such as errors related to data entry typos or not finding a more recent data value, before the data can be finalized and publicly reported.
Benchmarks
A benchmark is like a gauge or yardstick that helps us understand, measure and compare information. When a primary care practice regularly provides high quality care, this sets the benchmark for other primary care practices to achieve. For example, a result of 50% may not seem like a good result; however, if other primary care practices are at 15%, the primary care practice at 50% is doing much better, though there is still room for improvement.
Does a low score mean that doctors in the primary care practice give poor care?
A low score does not necessarily mean that the doctors in the primary care practice are providing poor care. Several factors can lower a practice’s score:
- Timing: If the goals aren’t met within the required timeframe, they are not counted.
- Patient participation: Not all patients follow doctor’s advice or follow through with recommended care.
- Data lag: Your primary care practice’s performance may have changed since the most recent quality ratings were reported.
Risk Adjustment
The Health Collaborative is currently not reporting risk-adjusted data, but may choose to in the future. Risk adjustment is a statistical process of modifying the data to account for factors that affect primary care practice results, such as patient age, gender, severity of illness and complications. Risk adjustment is often used when comparing primary care practices that treat different types of patient populations, such as practices who treat patients with more complicated illnesses than other practices. Risk adjustment helps address differences that are within and outside a practice’s control, allowing for a more “apples-to-apples” comparison.
About the Diabetes Data
How Primary Care Practices Are Measured
YourHealthMatters shows how doctors in the Greater Cincinnati area did in providing diabetes care. The results show how well doctors and their patients did in meeting the five diabetes goals:
- Blood pressure less than 140/90
- Level of bad cholesterol (LDL) less than 100 mg/dl
- Blood sugar (A1c) less than 8%
- Remain tobacco-free
- Take aspirin daily as recommended
The goals, when achieved together, represent the professionally recognized standard for managing diabetes, as established by the National Quality Forum (NQF). In order for a practice to get a single point, one patient must meet all five diabetes goals; missing just one goal results in the practice getting a score of zero for that patient.
Scores and Participating Practices
The most current diabetes data available are from 2010, with scores for previous years available from 2009. Based on new medical evidence in 2010, three of the diabetes goals changed. The new goals suggest that blood pressure less than 140/90, an A1c level less than 8, and taking a daily aspirin as recommended, help constitute high quality diabetes care. The 2009 diabetes results are based on previous goals of blood pressure less than 130/80, an A1c level less than 7, and taking one baby aspirin per day if 40 or older.
The data include the scores from providers that were in their practice at the specific point in time. The providers may or may not currently be affiliated with practices listed. Additionally, the practice may or may not have changed affiliation since the time of data collection.
Greater Cincinnati Regional Average
The Greater Cincinnati Regional Average shows how well area practices and diabetes patients did in meeting all five diabetes goals.
The Greater Cincinnati Regional Average is calculated by adding the percentages of diabetes patients from each practice who met all five goals and dividing that sum by the number of practices reporting data.
2010 Greater Cincinnati Regional Averages
- Overall Score: 28%. This means that 28 out of 100 diabetes patients met all five goals.
- Blood pressure less than 140/90: 75%. This means that 75 out of 100 diabetes patients have blood pressure under control.
- Level of bad cholesterol (LDL) less than 100 mg/dl: 56%. This means that 56 out of 100 diabetes patients have bad cholesterol under control.
- Blood sugar (A1c) less than 8%: 70%. This means that 70 out of 100 diabetes patients have blood sugar under control.
- Remain tobacco-free: 80%. This means that 80 out of 100 diabetes patients don’t smoke.
- Take aspirin daily as recommended: 96%. This means that 96 out of 100 diabetes patients take a daily aspirin as recommended.
2009 Greater Cincinnati Regional Averages
- Overall Score: 9%. This means that 9 out of 100 diabetes patients met all five goals.
- Blood pressure less than 130/80: 42%. This means that 42 out of 100 diabetes patients have blood pressure under control.
- Level of bad cholesterol (LDL) less than 100 mg/dl: 56%. This means that 56 out of 100 diabetes patients have bad cholesterol under control.
- Blood sugar (A1c) less than 7%: 49%. This means that 49 out of 100 diabetes patients have blood sugar under control.
- Remain tobacco-free: 80%. This means that 80 out of 100 diabetes patients don’t smoke.
- Take aspirin daily: 64%. This means that 64 out of 100 diabetes patients over the age of 40 take an aspirin daily.
About the Cardiovascular Health Data
How Primary Care Practices Are Measured
YourHealthMatters shows how doctors in the Greater Cincinnati area did in providing cardiovascular health. The results show how well doctors and their patients did in meeting the four cardiovascular health goals:
- Blood pressure less than 140/90
- Level of bad cholesterol (LDL) less than 100 mg/dl
- Remain tobacco-free
- Take aspirin daily as recommended
The goals, when achieved together, represent the professionally recognized standard for cardiovascular health, as established by the National Quality Forum (NQF). In order for a practice to get a single point, one patient must meet all four cardiovascular health goals; missing just one goal results in the practice getting a score of zero for that patient.
Scores and Participating Practices
The most current cardiovascular health data available are from 2010.
The data include the scores from providers that were in their practice at that specific point in the time. The providers may or may not currently be affiliated with practices listed. Additionally, the practice may or may not have changed affiliation since the time of data collection.
Greater Cincinnati Regional Average
The Greater Cincinnati Regional Average shows how well area practices and diabetes patients did in meeting all four cardiovascular health goals.
The Greater Cincinnati Regional Average is calculated by adding the percentages of cardiovascular patients from each practice who met all four goals and dividing that sum by the number of practices reporting data.
2010 Greater Cincinnati Regional Averages
- Overall Score: 28%. This means that 28 out of 100 cardiovascular patients met all four goals.
- Blood pressure less than 140/90: 77%. This means that 77 out of 100 cardiovascular patients have blood pressure under control.
- Level of bad cholesterol (LDL) less than 100 mg/dl: 57%. This means that 57 out of 100 cardiovascular patients have bad cholesterol under control.
- Remain tobacco-free: 62%. This means that 62 out of 100 cardiovascular patients don’t smoke.
- Take aspirin daily as recommended: 87%. This means that 87 out of 100 cardiovascular patients take a daily aspirin as recommended.
Didn’t find what you’re looking for?
Visit the FAQs to learn more about why measurement matters and how the data will be used, or contact the Health Collaborative.
