Improving and sustaining core measure performance through effective accountability of clinical microsystems in an academic medical center.

Background: Evidence-based performance measures, known as core measures, have been established by The Joint Commission to improve the quality of care for patient populations, such as those with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure, and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), as well as to improve the quality of surgical care--the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) measures. Hospital administrators have traditionally held academic and community physicians and hospital clinicians accountable for integrating the core measures into daily practice. Such efforts have often led to suboptimal results because of the belief that the "organization" (macrosystem) is the appropriate level at which to work to improve quality.