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"Quality is the fine mix of science and art in delivering competent, contemporary medical care…that results in a mutually respectful encounter between our patients, staff and physicians."
Northstar Physicians Board of Directors
Quality Matters
Since its’ beginnings over twenty years ago Northstar Physicians has made quality improvement a cornerstone of their organization.
As pioneers in quality improvement, Northstar Physicians clinics were among the first in this area to provide help for tobacco cessation on a system-wide level. For more than a decade, we have been assessing patients’ tobacco usage, willingness to quit, and the methods used to quit. We were the first in the region to track and publish the efforts of physicians to help their patients in this critical way.
Northstar Physicians also has a long history of measuring how we care for patients with diabetes and hypertension.
Our Quality Improvement Process
Every year our physicians develop programs to measure how well they provide care.
They set standards and achievement goals and work throughout each year to meet and exceed these goals.
Every year we introduce new ideas and processes to make sure that we continue to improve the care we give.
Each Northstar physician is committed to this process and they share ideas and methods on how to make it work best.
A core value of these dedicated physicians is that of giving the best care possible to every patient and to improve that care each year.
The data you see on this page represents the work and efforts of our clinics during 2007.
In the tradition of caring with quality Northstar Physicians’ clinics continue to measure themselves and improve the care they deliver.
The Quality of Our Process
Northstar Physicians is committed to reporting information that has been collected, compiled, reviewed and reported in a manner that will allow it to be trusted.
We train and work with a limited number of qualified nurses that perform the data collection.
The actual data collection is done by direct clinic chart audit, one record at a time.
The nurses use clear, concise and standardized tools to collect the data and are briefed on all processes to insure that the data is collected with integrity and consistency.
The nurses work closely with clinic staff to clarify any questions or concerns they may have in understanding the chart information and to assure that the audit truly reflects what is actually in the chart.
An exhaustive record of all charts reviewed is given to each clinic so they can verify and re-audit our findings.
2007 Quality Improvement Projects
Comprehensive Diabetes Management
High Blood Pressure Management
The data below represents the audits performed at the Northstar Physicians' member clinics in 2007. Each audit involved an exhaustive on-site review of records with the reviewers making every effort possible to assure that information was accurate.
Diabetes Management
(n=975 records).
|
Patients at Goal |
|
| 1. Pts. whose HbA1c is <7. | 63% |
| 2. Pts. whose blood Pressure < 130/80 | 52% |
| 3. Pts. whose LDL is <100 | 63% |
| 4. Pts. who take a daily aspirin, an equivalent or have cause not to. | 87% |
| 5. Pts. who do not use tobacco. | 90% |
| 6. Pts. who receive or are referred for an annual, dilated eye exam. | 66% |
| 7. Pts. who have an annual
kidney test or take appropriate medication to protect their kidneys. |
66% |
| 8. Pts. who have an annual monofilament foot exam. | 74% |
Comprehensive Diabetes Management Score
The "comprehensive diabetes management score" shows the percentage of cases where specific sets of measurements are all normal or optimally managed. Level I, which some reports call the the "grand slam" measurement or "D5," consists of those cases where the above elements 1 through 5 are all met for each case.
Northstar Physician's Level I accomplishment is
22%.
Measuring and reporting a Level II accomplishment is unique to Northstar Physicians. It represents those cases where elements 1 through 8 are all met for each case.
Northstar Physician's Level II accomplishment is
17%.
High Blood Pressure Management
(n=1302 records)
Only cases where confirmed hypertension was present were reviewed for this data. Actual chart review was used to obtain data. The most recent appropriate visit was reviewed; if the visit involved circumstances that may have artificially caused a temporary increase in blood pressure such as severe pain or trauma the next most-recent visit was reviewed. The lowest reading obtained in the reviewed visit was recorded.
2007 Blood Pressure Management Results
According to nationally recognized sources, the rate of hypertension control across the USA is only 34%.
Northstar Physicians control rate,
80%
is better than twice the national average.
© 2008 Northstar Physicians, Inc.