RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Evaluating Quality of Care for Rheumatoid Arthritis for the Population of Alberta Using System-level Performance Measures
JF The Journal of Rheumatology
JO J Rheumatol
FD The Journal of Rheumatology
SP 482
OP 485
DO 10.3899/jrheum.200420
VO 48
IS 4
A1 Claire E.H. Barber
A1 Diane Lacaille
A1 Peter Faris
A1 Dianne Mosher
A1 Steven Katz
A1 Jatin N. Patel
A1 Sharon Zhang
A1 Karen Yee
A1 Cheryl Barnabe
A1 Glen S. Hazlewood
A1 Vivian Bykerk
A1 Natalie J. Shiff
A1 Marinka Twilt
A1 Jennifer Burt
A1 Susanne M. Benseler
A1 Joanne Homik
A1 Deborah A. Marshall
YR 2021
UL http://www.jrheum.org/content/48/4/482.abstract
AB Objective We evaluated 4 national rheumatoid arthritis (RA) system-level performance measures (PM) in Alberta, Canada.Methods Incident and prevalent RA cases ≥ 16 years of age since 2002 were identified using a validated case definition applied in provincial administrative data. Performance was ascertained through analysis of health data between fiscal years 2012/13–2015/16. Measures evaluated were as follows: proportion of incident RA cases with a rheumatologist visit within 1 year of first RA diagnosis code (PM1); proportion of prevalent RA patients who were dispensed a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) annually (PM2); time from first visit with an RA code to DMARD dispensation and proportion of incident cases where the 14-day benchmark for dispensation was met (PM3); and proportion of patients seen in annual follow-up (PM4).Results There were 31,566 prevalent and 2730 incident RA cases (2012/13). Over the analysis period, the proportion of patients seen by a rheumatologist within 1 year of onset (PM1) increased from 55% to 63%; however, the proportion of RA patients dispensed DMARD annually (PM2) remained low at 43%. While the median time to DMARD from first visit date in people who received DMARD improved over time from 39 days to 28 days, only 38–41% of patients received treatment within the 14-day benchmark (PM3). The percentage of patients seen in yearly follow-up (PM4) varied between 73–80%.Conclusion The existing Alberta healthcare system for RA is suboptimal, indicating barriers to accessing specialty care and treatment. Our results inform quality improvement initiatives required within the province to meet national standards of care.