Comparative data on patient experience and clinical quality performance measures will be released to Massachusetts physicians and health plans this fall and to the public by early winter 2006. The data comes from Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP), a non-profit organization, whose mission is to support efforts to improve the quality of health care services delivered to Massachusetts residents.

The 2005 MHQP Patient Experience Survey Project marks the first time that MHQP will collect and release patient experience data to both physicians and the public. The project will sample patients from 497 adult and pediatric practice sites in Massachusetts. A nationally recognized survey will collect patients' experiences with their primary care physicians and practices; including relationship duration, communication quality, health promotion, interpersonal treatment, trust, access, continuity and integration of care, and other clinical and office staff.

MHQP has been sharing information on clinical quality performance measures with physicians and health plans since 2003, in its annual Statewide Comparative Clinical Quality Report (SCCQR). For the third year, this report will provide performance results for physicians based on HEDIS®* reporting measures collected from five participating health plans and aggregated at the practice site, medical group, and physician network levels. Five of Massachusetts' largest health plans have collaborated with MHQP in this process, including Health New England, Fallon Community Health Plan, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Tufts Health Plan, and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. In February of 2005, for the first time, MHQP released aggregated performance results at the physician network level to the general public. This coming winter, MHQP will go a step further by publicly releasing performance results for 160 medical groups in Massachusetts.

MHQP will not report individual physician results to the public. Survey results for the 2005 Patient Experience Survey will be reported at the practice-site level. Clinical quality performance results will be reported at the medical group level. Together, these reports offer a full range of comparative performance information that organizations, practices, and individual physicians can use to advance their internal quality improvement efforts. 

For more information on MHQP, the 2005 Patient Experience Survey, and clinical quality reporting visit www.mhqp.org.