Physicians at centers adhere to practice guidelines similarly or better than private physicians
FRIDAY, July 13 (HealthDay News) -- Physicians working at Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and FQHC look-alikes have similar or greater adherence to guidelines than primary care physicians (PCPs) at private practices, for 18 quality measures, according to a study published online July 10 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
L. Elizabeth Goldman, M.D., from the University of California in San Francisco, and colleagues performed a cross-sectional analysis of visits in the 2006 to 2008 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Eighteen quality measures were used to compare performance of FQHCs with private-practice PCPs.
The researchers found that FQHCs and look-alikes performed better on six measures, worse on diet counseling in at-risk adolescents (26 versus 36 percent), and similarly on 11 measures, compared to private-practice PCPs. FQHCs performed significantly better on using angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors for congestive heart failure (51 versus 37 percent), use of aspirin in coronary artery disease (CAD) (57 versus 44 percent), use of β-blockers for CAD (59 versus 47 percent), not using benzodiazepines in depression (91 versus 84 percent), blood pressure screening (90 versus 86 percent), and avoiding screening electrocardiograms in low-risk patients (99 versus 93 percent). After adjustment for patient characteristics, private-practice PCPs no longer had better performance on any measures.
"FQHCs and look-alikes demonstrated equal or better performance than private-practice PCPs on select quality measures despite serving patients who have more chronic disease and socioeconomic complexity," the authors write.
One author disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
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