Physicians continue to overuse antibiotics in adults and children, according to a health care quality report card released Oct. 23 by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.
The report, which looked at health plan quality data from 2012, shows that among adults under age 65 who were diagnosed with acute bronchitis, more than three-quarters were given a prescription for antibiotics.
Dr. Margaret O’Kane
Performance on this quality metric has been stagnant over the past 3 years and has actually worsened since 2006, according to the report.
"We’re not making progress here," NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane said during a press conference. "We’ve got to up our game."
On the pediatric side, physicians appear to be doing a much better job of reining in inappropriate antibiotic use. Among children with upper respiratory infections, only about 15% are receiving prescriptions for antibiotics. But the figures show virtually no improvement over the past several years.
The NCQA findings come just after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned in September that the overuse of antibiotics is creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are sickening at least 2 million people each year.
The rest of the NCQA report card found mixed results on quality measures, with improvements in tackling obesity in adults and children, increases in children’s vaccinations for influenza, but stagnant performance in other childhood vaccinations.
The report showed that:
• The percentage of adults aged 18-74 years who had an outpatient visit where their body mass index (BMI) was documented increased significantly, jumping from 55% to 66% in commercial health maintenance organizations (HMOs).
• For the first time, more than half of children and adolescents in commercial HMO plans were counseled about nutrition and physical activity.
• The percentage of children being immunized against influenza and rotavirus rose for the second year in a row in all types of health plans.
• The percentage of children (age 2) in commercial HMOs who had received the Combination 2 vaccine was up from the previous year at 80% in 2012, but down from a high of 81% in 2008.
• About 75% of adults with low back pain did not have imaging performed to confirm their diagnosis, but performance has been relatively unchanged over the past five years.
• Less than half of current adult smokers were offered strategies for quitting.
The NCQA report is based on the 2012 Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) measure performance for more than 1,000 health plans. The data set includes information on commercial and public plans covering about 136 million Americans.