Innovations in Primary Care
Penn State Health’s Patient-Centered Quality Metric Reframing Project May Serve as a Model for Presenting Future Quality Metrics
Quality metrics aim to improve patient outcomes by setting evidence-based targets, but many are neither patient centered nor physician centered. A team at Penn State Health’s Department of Family and Community Medicine ran a project across 13 ambulatory clinics to make quality data more meaningful by presenting patient-oriented outcomes in plain, natural language. Using 24 months of electronic health record data, they paired measured outcomes with Number Needed to Treat (NNT)–based estimates to translate care delivered into likely patient results, such as, “you avoided four strokes for patients with heart disease by prescribing statins, for example.” They produced one-page summaries, emailed clinic-level and provider-level reports, and displayed office posters, then surveyed recipients. Among 119 respondents, most said the reports were clear (85%) and relevant (77%); many felt the format strengthened their sense of impact compared with standard metrics (61%), increased motivation (59%), and would improve how they review traditional measures (50%). About half wanted clearer explanations of how the numbers were calculated, pointing to a need for more transparency.
Permanent link: Patient-Oriented Quality Metrics Enhance Provider and Staff Engagement
Daniel Schlegel, MD, MHA, DABFM, FAAFP, et al
Penn State Health & Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania
The Annals of Family Medicine
22-Sep-2025