O&P experts from the Orthotics and Prosthetics Foundation for Education and Research, Ottobock, Hanger Clinic, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, and Texas Christian University published a special communication in the Archives of Rehabilitation Research and Clinical Translation calling for urgency in establishing specific evidence-based quality measures in O&P.
They identified six domains of quality of care (safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, efficiency, and equity), and created action items for O&P organizations, researchers, manufacturers, clinic owners, clinicians, patients, and educators to begin developing the measures.
The authors referenced the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ plan to shift to value-based care by 2030, emphasizing that establishing specific evidence-based quality measures in O&P empowers the profession to define appropriate standards and minimizes the risk of inappropriate, externally imposed benchmarks.
The communication highlighted the need to incorporate quality-of-care measurement into O&P practice across each key group and called for O&P-specific research to define meaningful measures, establish standardized indicators, and implement systems for quality improvement.
“Despite robust frameworks guiding quality measurement in other healthcare fields, orthotics and prosthetics (O&P) rehabilitation lags in adopting these practices,” the authors wrote.
To read the open-access special communication, “Transitioning towards quality-of-care assessment in orthotics and prosthetics practice,” visit the Archives of Rehabilitation Research and Clinical Translation.
