Overview

About this study

A better understanding of the changes in clinician behavior as a result of finance reform could lead to significant improvements in patient safety. In the past decade, regulators and insurers have increasingly lobbied for payment based on outcomes believing that this would improve safety and patient-centered care. However, studies have not shown improvement in performance and reduction of costs, which is likely because outcome-based payment incentives create conflict for clinicians. That is, an increased reliance on outcome-based payment incentives may misdirect clinicians’ focus from patient-centered care to outcome-centered care. The disconnect between the success of organizations without outcome-based incentives and the push for these finance models demonstrates the need for a better understanding of the fundamental drivers behind high quality care and patient safety. The goals of this project are twofold: Our short-term goal is to use healthcare simulations to improve our understanding of how outcome-based payments change clinician behavior. Healthcare simulations create a test-bed environment for new health care delivery models by replicating a health care event with patient actors. Our long-term goal is to leverage our findings to promote evidence-based payment models designed to increase patient safety by decreasing the likelihood of medical error.

Participating Mayo Clinic locations

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