Assessment of provider adherence to obesity treatment guidelines

Despite the presence of obesity treatment guidelines, healthcare providers often provide suboptimal weight management. The purpose of the quality improvement project was to systematically assess adherence with adult overweight/obesity guidelines in primary care to reduce patient risk.

Retrospective analysis of 420 encounter notes from overweight and obese adult patients in three primary care clinics. Data were collected before and after a continuing education session for providers on guidelines for optimal management of obesity. Measures of completeness of quality indicators were abstracted from records.

Significant improvement in the completeness score and documentation of body mass index, height, diagnosis of overweight/obesity, and counseling for diet and physical activity were achieved.

The proposed measures for systematically assessing the integration of obesity guidelines in primary care are feasible quality indicators and useful for evidence-based decision making.