Researchers at the New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery found that high-volume institutions can reliably measure outcomes by collecting data from a smaller, well-chosen sample of patients, according to an Oct. 24 system news release.
The study was prompted by the administrative burden some facilities are facing in the wake of new requirements from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that mandate patient-reported outcome measures for more than half of patients undergoing procedures such as hip and knee replacements.
The findings, presented at the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons’ annual meeting, suggest an alternative way for high-volume hospitals to reduce administrative burden while delivering accurate outcome data.
The approach could save time and costs for large hospitals but may not work for lower-volume facilities, where a full data set is needed for accurate quality reporting, according to the release.
More than 740,000 Medicare patients receive hip or knee replacements each year — a figure projected to reach 1.2 million by 2030 — making efficient data collection increasingly important as CMS expands its quality reporting expectations.
