Five New Chronic Assessment Categories Added to Bridges to Excellence

Bridges to Excellence uses "continuous scoring" meaning that physicians can get points that are calculated upon exactly how many patients they get into compliance, says Edison Machado, MD, Bridges to Excellence medical director and programs manager.

And to promote continuous quality improvement, the Bridges To Excellence physicians are monitored by using three levels or tiers of recognition. The levels are designed to recognize improvements in performance--from successfully managing the patients at the highest risk of hospitalization to optimally managing the majority of patients--while controlling for patient selection bias.

The levels are:

• Level I: Focuses on a "physician centric view" of measurement, with an emphasis placed on reducing the number of patients in "poor control" as assessed by intermediate outcome measures.


• Level II:  Focuses on a combination of physician and patient centric measurements, which look at the defect rate of care delivery across the "poor control" measures on a per patient basis.


• Level III:  Focuses on a patient centric view of measurement, with the defect rate strategy expanded to apply to "superior control" as well as "poor control" measures on a per patient basis.