Few outcome measures meet criteria for accuracy, validity assessment

Editor's Note

This study from the Joint Commission finds that criteria for assessing whether outcome measures are accurate and valid enough to use for public reporting, payment, and accreditation are not well-defined.

The authors propose four criteria to assess outcome measures:

• Strong evidence should exist that good medical care leads to improved outcomes within the measure’s time period.
• Outcomes should be measurable with a high degree of precision.
• Risk-adjustment methodology should include and accurately measure risk factors most strongly linked to the outcomes.
• Implementation of outcome measures must have little chance of inducing unintended adverse consequences.

When these criteria were applied to 10 outcome measures currently used or proposed for accountability programs, three met all four, while five failed to meet one or more.

These findings raise concerns and suggest the need for national dialogue on how to judge outcome measures, the authors note.