COVID-19's Effect on Practice Quality Improvement and Transformation Activities: Practice Survey Results.

Background And Objectives: The Transforming Clinical Practices Initiative (TCPI) was a 4-year, large-scale, collaborative, peer-based learning initiative for physician practices of all specialties with broad goals to improve the quality of patient care, spend health care dollars more wisely, and assist practices in being ready to succeed under value-based payment (VBP). We investigated whether the COVID-19 pandemic had erased or diminished practice transformation progress made during the TCPI program period, through a follow-up survey of participating practices fielded in October 2021.

Methods: In October 2021 to April 2022, we surveyed a probability sample of 2207 primary care and specialty practices that participated in the TCPI, receiving 610 responses.

Practice Transformation in the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative and Emergency Department Use.

To provide insight on how ambulatory care practices can reduce emergency department (ED) visits, we studied changes in Medicare ED visits for primary and specialty care practices in the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative. We compared practices that transformed more vs less during the 6-year period ending in 2021 (3,773 practices). Using data from a practice transformation assessment tool completed at multiple intervals, we found improvement in the transformation score was associated with reduced ED visits by 6% and 4% for primary and specialty care practices, respectively, 3 to 4 years after first assessment.

Comparing the quality of care in physician networks to usual care for elderly patients in three German regions: a quasi-experimental cohort study.

Objectives: Patients in Germany have free choice of physicians in the ambulatory care sector and can consult them as often as they wish without a referral. This can lead to inefficiencies in treatment pathways. In response, some physicians have formed networks to improve the coordination and quality of care.

Organization and quality of care in patient-sharing networks.

Healthcare systems seek to provide continuous and coordinated care of high quality. However, patient pathways in the ambulatory sector may differ and result in various provider units. Our aim was to analyze whether health outcomes and the quality of care differ between different types of patient-sharing physician networks.

Do physician networks with standardized audit and feedback deliver better quality care for older patients compared to regular care?: a quasi-experimental study using claims data from Bavaria, Germany.

Background: Physician networks (PNs) are a recent development in Germany, designed to improve the coordination and quality of healthcare. We compared the performance of PNs that use a standardized system of audit and feedback to that of regular care.

Methods: We analysed a large sample of claims data from Bavaria, Germany, using nearest-neighbour propensity score matching.