Published In

Journal of The American Board of Family Medicine: JABFM

Document Type

Post-Print

Publication Date

5-1-2019

Subjects

Cardiovascular system -- Diseases, Primary care (Medicine), Medical care -- United States -- Quality control, Clinics -- Ownership

Abstract

Purpose: We assessed differences in structural characteristics, quality improvement processes, and cardiovascular preventive care by ownership type among 989 small to medium primary care practices.

Methods: This cross-sectional analysis used electronic health record and survey data collected between September 2015 and April 2017 as part of an evaluation of the EvidenceNOW: Advancing Heart Health in Primary Care Initiative by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. We compared physician-owned practices, health system or medical group practices, and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) by using 15 survey-based practice characteristic measures, 9 survey-based quality improvement process measures, and 4 electronic health record-based cardiovascular disease prevention quality measures, namely, aspirin prescription, blood pressure control, cholesterol management, and smoking cessation support (ABCS).

Results: Physician-owned practices were more likely to be solo (45.0% compared with 8.1%, P < .001 for health system practices and 12.8%, P = .009 for FQHCs) and less likely to have experienced a major change (eg, moved to a new location) in the last year (43.1% vs 65.4%, P = .01 and 72.1%, P = .001, respectively). FQHCs reported the highest use of quality improvement processes, followed by health system practices. ABCS performance was similar across ownership type, with the exception of smoking cessation support (51.0% for physician-owned practices vs 67.3%, P = .004 for health system practices and 69.3%, P = .004 for FQHCs).

Conclusions: Primary care practice ownership was associated with differences in quality improvement process measures, with FQHCs reporting the highest use of such quality-improvement strategies. ABCS were mostly unrelated to ownership, suggesting a complex path between quality improvement strategies and outcomes.

Description

© Copyright 2019 by the American Board of Family Medicine.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Lindner, S., Solberg, L. I., Miller, W. L., Balasubramanian, B. A., Marino, M., McConnell, K. J., … Cohen, D. J. (2019). Does Ownership Make a Difference in Primary Care Practice? Journal of The American Board of Family Medicine: JABFM, 32(3), 398–407.

This article has been published in final form at: http://doi.org/10.3122/jabfm.2019.03.180271. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.

DOI

10.3122/jabfm.2019.03.180271

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/28794

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