The Issue
The Care Transitions Measure (CTM) was created to assess the quality of care patients receive as they move between different levels or locations of care, such as from the hospital to home, a nursing home, or a rehabilitation facility. With support from The Commonwealth Fund, researchers examined how well the original 15-item CTM assessment performs among three underserved groups: African Americans, Hispanics, and rural patients. They also examined the performance of the CTM-3, a three-item version of the tool that has been endorsed by the National Quality Forum.What the Study Found
The CTM-15 was administered to 225 African American, Hispanic, or rural adults who had been hospitalized in the past 12 months. Since the three questions from the shorter survey are embedded within the CTM-15, the researchers were able to 1) test how well the CTM-15 works among the three underserved groups, and 2) test the predictive validity of the CTM-3 with respect to patients’ responses to the longer version. The analysis found that the CTM-15 works well among the three patient groups, with no evidence of bias. It also found that the shorter version of the CTM accurately predicts scores on the longer version.
Conclusions
This study supports use of both the long and short versions of the Care Transitions Measure in national public reporting efforts. The authors note that the shorter version “may be attractive to purchasers and health care organizations that want to assess quality in this area while minimizing cost and response burden.”