Effect of an Educational Intervention for Healthcare Providers on Body Mass Index Quality Measures

Abstract

Increased body mass index (BMI) is associated with multiple complications and reducing BMI improves health. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) core quality measures (QMs) necessitate screening for out-of-range BMI at every visit and documenting a follow-up plan if one has not been documented within the previous six months. Historically, compliance rates at the project site have been low. Hence, the primary purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an educational intervention designed for healthcare providers on their documentation of body mass index (BMI) quality measure (QM) indicator in their patients’ medical records. Three providers in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) received an educational intervention about overweight and obesity status, including clinical practice guidelines, how to satisfy the BMI QM indicator within the electronic health record, and how to use an optional order set that includes CMS’s BMI QM indicator requirements. To evaluate the effect of the intervention de-identified patient data was analyzed prior to (Time 1), one-month after (Time 2), and two-months after (Time 3) the intervention. Providers evaluated the intervention and the optional order set via online surveys. Providers’ overall opinion of the BMI QM activity was that it was excellent (M = 4). There was a statistically significant increase in the percentage of patients with a BMI above the normal range with the BMI QM completion at Time 3 (95.5%) compared to Times 1 (63.4%) and 2 (73.6%), χ2(2, N = 1549) = 134.55, p