Performance Measures in Dermatologic Surgery: A Review of the Literature and Future Directions.

BACKGROUND In recent years, health care reform initiatives have aimed to assess quality of care through the use of performance measures. Multiple specialties, including dermatology, have implemented registries to track and report health care quality. OBJECTIVE The authors review the history and rationale for assessing quality in dermatologic surgery. The authors also discuss the different types of performance measures and the current efforts to develop clinically relevant dermatologic surgery-specific measures. MATERIALS AND METHODS An extensive literature review was conducted using OVID, MEDLINE, PubMed, and government and health care-related websites to identify articles related to surgical performance measures. RESULTS Few performance measures are established to assess quality in dermatologic surgery. The authors propose specific candidate measures and discuss how clinical registries can capture measures that meet federal reporting requirements. CONCLUSION Assessment of health care quality will become increasingly important in health care reform. Physicians need to take an active role in selecting appropriate, clinically relevant performance measures that will help improve patient care while containing health care costs and meeting government-mandated reporting requirements.