Improving quality, preventing disability and reducing costs in workers' compensation healthcare: a population-based intervention study.

Background: Problems of poor quality and high costs are worse in the workers' compensation system than in the general medical care system, yet relatively little work has been done to improve performance in workers' compensation healthcare.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of a quality improvement intervention that provided financial incentives to providers to encourage adoption of best practices, coupled with organizational support and care management activities, aimed at reducing work disability for patients treated within the Washington State workers' compensation system.

Research Design: Prospective nonrandomized intervention study with nonequivalent comparison group using difference-in-difference models to estimate the effect of the intervention.

A communitywide intervention to improve outcomes and reduce disability among injured workers in Washington State.

One pressing challenge facing the U.S. health care system is the development of effective policies and clinical management strategies to address deficiencies in health care quality.

Improving the quality of occupational health care in Washington State: new approaches to designing community-based health care systems.

The need for concerted action to improve quality was stressed in the recent Institute of Medicine report, Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health Care System for the 21st Century. This article describes an innovative community-based delivery system initiative designed to improve quality and health outcomes for occupational health conditions. Known as the Occupational Health Services (OHS) project, this Washington State initiative focuses on three targeted conditions: low back sprain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and fractures.