Ensure Consistent Clinical Decision Making
January 15, 2010
Every day, healthcare organizations are challenged regarding the clinical decisions they make. They face an increased number of requirements from government, regulatory accrediting agencies and employer groups. Objective proof that decisions are consistent and supportable is imperative, making interrater reliability -- the degree of agreement among clinical decision-makers -- critical.
There are a wide variety of approaches that organizations can use to support interrater reliability, and objectively validate its presence: using nationally recognized standards of care and clinical guidelines; providing easy access to staff training; and testing how staff members use the standards in place. National organizations such as NCQA and URAC offer programs and services to help organizations assess their quality of care and their clinical decision-making processes.
With the diversity of workplace settings, offering multiple training options is a key to ensuring that staff members participate, regardless of their schedule. Consider on-site or regional training, peer training, and web-based training options. All training activity must be tracked, reportable and result in measurable action plans. Evaluating the outcome once training has been completed, and measuring progress and results are vital.
Once training is complete, organizations can begin to track their interrater reliability. The best solutions test staff using realistic clinical situations against set standards, and provide both detailed and high-level reporting by individual user, group and across the organization. Healthcare standards change as new treatments, medications and alternatives are identified. Access to ongoing training and testing helps to maintain consistent clinical decisions.
Milliman Care Guidelines offers nationally-recognized guidelines, a comprehensive set of training options and an Interrater Reliability Tool to support the evaluation process.
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