Development, Testing, and Dissemination of a Public-Facing Tool to Help Consumers Find Higher-Quality Addiction...

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Quality
• Addiction Treatment
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Publicly accessible quality measures are crucial for informed healthcare decisions.
• Existing quality metrics for addiction treatment facilities require development and validation.
• A need exists to evaluate addiction treatment services based on provider practices and patient experiences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and test quality measures for addiction treatment facilities.
• To create a public-facing search engine incorporating these quality measures.
• To assess the reliability and validity of the developed quality indicators.

Main Methods:

• Developed a facility survey querying services and processes aligned with quality standards.
• Created four insurance claims-based quality measures for opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment.
• Implemented a patient experience-of-care survey to gauge treatment quality perceptions.

Main Results:

• Validated facility surveys, patient experience surveys, and claims-based measures.
• Demonstrated reliability and validity of the quality measures through statistical testing.
• Observed significant variation in quality scores across addiction treatment providers.
• Launched a public website featuring quality measures in six states, receiving substantial consumer traffic.

Conclusions:

• Successfully developed valid, reliable, and useful quality measures for addiction treatment.
• Dissemination of these measures can empower consumers in provider selection.
• Quality measures provide a framework for providers, policymakers, and payers to enhance addiction treatment services.