Continuity of Care as a Quality Metric

Discussion Tips Dr Barbara Starfield defined the 4 functions of primary care as first contact, continuity, comprehensiveness, and coordination. The authors of this study used a database that included claims from large commercial insurance and Medicare Advantage health plans to test the reliability and validity of a clinical quality measure based on 1 of these functions, continuity of care (CoC). They then explored whether there was an association between physicians having a greater percentage of patients with CoC >0.7 and a lower percentage of patients with 1 or more emergency department visits during the 12-month study period.