Health centers that perform well on the National Committee for Quality Assurance's patient-centered medical home assessment tool may not be associated with higher quality of diabetes care, according to research published in Health Affairs.
For their study, researchers from UCLA collected data from 30 community health centers in Los Angeles County and a total of 1,455 diabetic patients. All of the community health centers studied would have qualified as NCQA patient-centered medical homes.
The researchers not only found variation in the quality of diabetes care across the health centers but also discovered the presence of more NCQA patient-centered medical home components was not associated with better delivery of diabetes care measures.
They concluded the NCQA tool does not measure the processes that determine the quality of diabetes care with enough sensitivity for a community health center.
For their study, researchers from UCLA collected data from 30 community health centers in Los Angeles County and a total of 1,455 diabetic patients. All of the community health centers studied would have qualified as NCQA patient-centered medical homes.
The researchers not only found variation in the quality of diabetes care across the health centers but also discovered the presence of more NCQA patient-centered medical home components was not associated with better delivery of diabetes care measures.
They concluded the NCQA tool does not measure the processes that determine the quality of diabetes care with enough sensitivity for a community health center.
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