Orthopedics Department Receives Award to Improve Quality Measures

Patricia Franklin received an AHRQ-funded award from AcademyHealth’s Electronic Data Methods (EDM) Forum to disseminate best practices in collecting and using patient-reported outcomes in quality and research. Capturing the patients’ experience and perspectives with patient-reported outcomes (PROs) is challenging, often due to practical challenges with data collection at the point of care. This project brings together experts from leading surgical quality registries (FORCE-TJR, CERTAIN, and the Kaiser Permanente Total Joint Registry) with patients, clinicians, and policymakers to identify generalizable lessons and generate a toolkit of promising strategies to improve collection and use of PROs in health care. As Medicare and private payers initiate PRO mandates, this timely project will disseminate procedures and lessons learned to guide hospitals and clinicians across the US. (See News&Views on 1/9/15)