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Study: Administrative data may skew report cards

Physician Practice Advisor, March 1, 2006

Medical quality report cards that are based on administrative data may be subject to grade inflation, according to a study by the Rand Corporation published in the February issue of Medical Care.

Researchers examined 182 measures of healthcare quality using medical records and administrative data for a sample of 399 elderly patients. Although the study found that patients received recommended care 83% of the time using the 37 quality indicators that can be measured with administrative data, when the list was expanded to include the 145 indicators measured with medical records, overall performance dropped to 55%.

The study concluded that administrative data may provide an inaccurate and inflated view of healthcare quality, and medical records-particularly electronic medical records-provide a broader spectrum of indicators and more accurate grading.

Click here to read the abstract of the study.

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