Developing Resident-Sensitive Quality Measures for Internal Medicine

Can electronic health record data be used to develop resident-sensitive quality measures (RSQMs) that provide physicians-in-training feedback on their quality of care?This cohort study of 793 senior internal medicine residents linked to 132 291 patient admissions found both expected and unexpected patterns of resident-level variation within a framework evaluating low-value, discretionary, and evidence-based care RSQMs. In particular, rates of first-line antibiotic ordering for pneumonia varied widely depending on the attribution time window.These findings highlight challenges of attribution and statistical reliability that should be considered when developing and evaluating RSQMs using readily available electronic health record data.

Corresponding Author: Brandon Tang, MD, MMSc, Division of General Internal Medicine, St Michael’s Hospital, 30 Bond St, Toronto ON M5B 1W8, Canada (bran.tang@utoronto.ca).

Link to the article in your story

We encourage you to link out to this article in your story using the link below. It includes an access token that will give free access to the article for your readers up to one year after publication. (The link will be live after the article publishes and embargo is lifted.)

Please see the article for additional information, including full author list, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

Need more information? Contact us.