[Experienced quality assurance in the IVOM structural contract of the AOK‑BW : A practical example]

According to § 73c of the Social Security Codebook V (SGB V), the AOK health insurance structural contract regulates the treatment of macular diseases by intravitreal drug administration (IVOM) in Baden-Württemberg (BW). Quality assurance is a central part of the agreement in order to ensure the high quality as well as effective and sufficient care of patients.

Every year at least 2% of the cases of the 254 currently participating surgeons are evaluated in a pseudonymized procedure by a panel of experts based on the billing data. Based on quality parameters, such as accuracy of diagnosis, quality and completeness of treatment documents and adherence to treatment pathways, the Medical Advisory Board recommends sanctions or facilitation of controls. The overall assessment of an expert opinion is based on a matrix of the evaluated quality parameters. The transmission of findings and expert opinions is digital and web based. Each surgeon has access to a comparative analysis of the quality data over time (benchmarking).

In the first 11 quality assurance rounds, a total of 3639 expert opinions were made by a total of 20 reviewers. With respect to the quality parameter "diagnosis", the surgeon and the expert opinion differed in an average 7% of cases. Sanctions or facilitation of control by changing the sample were recommended 138 times for 80 surgeons in the first 10 quality assurance rounds. Financial sanctions or exclusion from contracts were each decided four times by the steering committee.

The digital, web-based quality assurance system presented here within the framework of the IOVM structural contract of the AOK-BW should be perceived as an opportunity to classify and improve one's own quality level with respect to intravitreal treatment of retinal diseases. The current focus of quality assurance is on diagnosis and adherence to the disease-specific treatment recommendations of the professional societies. If the analysis of data could be extended to individual patient histories over time, quality assurance could be better used for questions of health services research.