Patient assessment of physician performance of epilepsy quality-of-care measures

Abstract

To identify gaps in physician practice of epilepsy care, an online survey was sent to members of a Web-based epilepsy community to ascertain whether their physician performed 8 quality measures for epilepsy care. A total of 221 of 348 recently active epilepsy patients (64%) completed the survey. More than 80% of patients agreed they knew their seizure type, epilepsy syndrome, current seizure frequency, and had an EEG and neuroimaging. Fewer (60%) recalled being asked about medication side effects at each visit and safety issues annually. Only 48% report referral to an epilepsy surgery specialist and only 46% of appropriate patients had discussed reproductive issues with epilepsy. This demonstrates some potential gaps in epilepsy care and these data have been submitted to the American Academy of Neurology and the National Quality Forum.

Figure. Epilepsy quality measures by physician specialty

Box plots of total number of measures performed (excluding contraception item) broken down by specialty of treating physician. Black line represents the median, box is the interquartile range (IQR), whiskers are 1.5× IQR, and circles are outliers (>1.5 × IQR). GP/PCP = general practitioner/primary care physician.