Indian Health Services is producing encouraging results from a program that aggregates patient data from 182 clinics and other organizations nationwide, Government Health IT reports.
The Clinical Reporting System gathers data from IHS' electronic record system and generates reports that can be used to compare quality measures locally and nationally. The system is "a success story for performance-based budgeting," said Theresa Cullen, a senior medical informatics specialist at IHS. She added, "What we're seeing as an agency is that our ability to track performance and monitor it is leading to a change in what's discussed on a regular basis."
Data generated from the system are available to nurses, physicians and other providers throughout IHS. In addition, IHS is using CRS to create reports that it sends to Congress and the Office of Management and Budget as part of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993.
In 2005, IHS reported its performance on 20 clinical measures and found that it did not meet its goal of 65% for only one of those measures. However, that measure - body mass index assessments - did see a 45% increase from 2004, Government Health IT reports.
The Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense also use programs to report quality data. However, according to Cullen, IHS' program is the only one that uses an automated system to track performance (Ferris, Government Health IT, 4/17).