Research Alert: June 1, 2016

Quality Measures and Sociodemographic Risk Factors: The Rural Context

Researchers and policymakers have publicly discussed and debated whether or not to adjust provider quality measures for differences in patient characteristics. Lacking in this discussion, however, is a nuanced understanding of how adjustment should be conducted within a rural context and what impact it might have on patients and providers when quality measures are used for benchmarking and payment.

The purpose of this project was to identify how rurality and key sociodemographic variables might affect quality-of-care outcomes and to estimate the potential impact on quality measurement.

Additional Resources of Interest:

• Quality Reporting for CAHs and Rural PPS Hospitals: The Potential Impact of Composite Measures
• More information about the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
• More information from the Rural Health Information Hub's topic guides: Healthcare Quality, Rural Health Policy