Beyond the Scorecard: Real-Time, Patient-Centered Measurement That Clinicians Trust

Clinicians do not need more measures—they need better ones. In a keynote session at NCQA’s Health Innovation Summit, “Beyond the Scorecard: Real-Time, Patient-Centered Measurement That Clinicians Trust,” experts discussed how quality measurement can shift from compliance and burden to clarity, cohesion and trust.

Moderator Susannah M. Bernheim, MD, MHS, Vice President, Program and Strategy at The John A. Hartford Foundation engaged in a lively discussion with panelists Alice Chen, MD, MPH, Chief Health Officer at Centene, Caleb Stowell, MD, Chief Analytics Officer at Providence and Arjun Srinivasan, MD, Deputy Chief Medical Officer at The Joint Commission.

Key Takeaways From This Session

The session provided a comprehensive roadmap for advancing measurement within healthcare systems.

Simplify Measures and Manage Their Consequences

Panelists spoke about streamlining quality measurement around a small number of clear and purposeful measures while retaining the data needed to understand and improve the system. Every measure exists for a reason—someone thought it was important to close a gap in care. Before removing a measure, identify the care gap it was intended to close and ask what the consequences are and whether we can mitigate them.

Separate Accountability Measures From Learning Signals

Measurement systems need both external accountability and internal tools for learning, but those purposes should not be confused. Keep public and purchaser-facing measures few, stable and purposeful, while using richer internal signals—including observations and patient data—to understand systems and guide improvement without turning every data point into a ranking mechanism.

Connect Care Processes to Meaningful Outcomes

Process measures such as screening or treatment completion can support improvement, but organizations should also test whether the care improves a patient’s function, symptoms or clinical status. Measures should also focus on what matters to the patient, including their goals and lived experience. Patient-centered outcome measures can help clinicians and patients judge whether care is producing meaningful improvement, not merely whether a process was completed.

Build Infrastructure for Usable, Real-Time Measurement

Timely, trusted measurement requires reporting infrastructure, data standards and workflows that move information from records into clinicians’ hands—where decisions are being made. Data that arrive years later may support accountability, but cannot support real-time improvement.

Turn Large Datasets Into Timely Clinical Action

Real-time measurement requires more than dashboards or raw data feeds. Analytic tools should translate large datasets, record review and clinical observations into concise insights and tangible steps, then place them in workflows where clinicians and facilities can act.

Coordinate Measurement Transformation Across the System

Measurement reform cannot succeed through isolated indicator changes. Government, states, purchasers, health plans, health systems, clinicians and patients need coordinated roles and a shared strategy connecting priorities, payment, implementation and information flows. To transform the system, these groups must work together.

Pair Aligned Priorities With Payment and Implementation

Purchasers and health plans can reduce fragmentation by agreeing on a small, shared set of priorities and tying them to financial incentives. Common measures drive sustained change only when they are paired with clear payment programs and implementation projects.

Learn More

We will post more insights from the Health Innovation Summit on our blog, so stay tuned.