Pay-for-Performance and Anesthesiology Quality Incentive Measures (August 18, 2006)
To make certain that anesthesiology is included in the P4P dialog taking place all across the country, ASA has developed a set of 5 proposed “Quality Incentives” that can be the basis for performance measures. These proposals cover:
- Timely Administration of Antibiotic Prophylaxis
- Perioperative Normothermia
- Comprehensive Planning for Chronic Pain Management
- Prevention of Ventilator Associated Pneumonia
- Prevention of Catheter-Related Bloodstream Infections
They are adapted from performance measures that have come out of the national Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) as well as various ASA committees and members, working under the leadership of Vice President for Professional Affairs Alexander A. Hannenberg, M.D. Download a copy of the set of Quality Incentives.
Performance measures developed or proposed by specialty societies are submitted to the AMA-sponsored Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement, which then develops measures that meet its requirements for evidence-based medicine and other criteria. Through the first years of its existence, the Consortium has released numerous primary care measures. The Perioperative Care Workgroup, co-chaired by ASA’s Ronald Gabel, M.D. and surgeon Scott Jones, M.D., recently considered comments received from all interested parties on a proposed measure to report the timely administration of antibiotic prophylaxis.