A Comprehensive Primer for Quality Assessment in Orthopaedic Surgery: Quality Measures, Payment Programs, and...

Practicing orthopaedic surgeons are subject to both the requirement and the opportunity to participate in individual or group quality assessment, quality-based payment programs, and clinical data registries. An important limitation to participating in and receiving the benefits of quality measuring activities and programs is the lack of a current resource outlining quality assessment models, current quality metrics, and the presence and function of current quality programs, payment models, and active orthopaedic registries. This article is intended as a primer for the practicing orthopaedic surgeon and orthopaedic groups. We provide a detailed overview of current quality metric databases, their categorization and use, and orthopaedic surgeon's role in creating and shaping the definition of quality care and outcomes assessment in the future.