Ongoing and Focused Provider Performance Evaluations in Emergency Medicine: Current Practices and Modified Delphi to...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Emergency Medicine Practice

Background:

• The Joint Commission mandates ongoing and focused provider performance evaluations (OPPEs/FPPEs).
• Current approaches to OPPE/FPPE in emergency medicine (EM) lack standardization.
• There is a need to identify best practices for provider performance assessment in EM.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe current OPPE/FPPE practices among EM leaders.
• To identify consensus-based recommendations for best practice in EM provider performance evaluations.
• To explore the utility of different metrics for assessing provider performance.

Main Methods:

• An online survey was distributed to EM leaders to assess current OPPE/FPPE strategies.
• A modified Delphi approach was employed to achieve consensus on best practice recommendations.
• Data analysis focused on identifying preferred metrics and areas for improvement.

Main Results:

• A diverse range of OPPE/FPPE strategies are currently implemented in EM.
• "Peer-reviewed cases with opportunity for improvement" emerged as a preferred metric for OPPE.
• A need for consistent adoption of robust internal care review processes was identified.

Conclusions:

• Standardization of internal care review processes is crucial for establishing norms in EM provider performance evaluation.
• National benchmarking data for EM OPPE/FPPE is currently unavailable.
• Further engagement of EM leaders is necessary to develop a unified approach linked to patient outcomes.