Assessment of provider adherence to obesity treatment guidelines.

PURPOSE: Despite the presence of obesity treatment guidelines, healthcare providers often provide suboptimal weight management. The purpose of the quality improvement project was to systematically assess adherence with adult overweight/obesity guidelines in primary care to reduce patient risk. DATA SOURCES: Retrospective analysis of 420 encounter notes from overweight and obese adult patients in three primary care clinics. Data were collected before and after a continuing education session for providers on guidelines for optimal management of obesity. Measures of completeness of quality indicators were abstracted from records.
CONCLUSIONS: Significant improvement in the completeness score and documentation of body mass index, height, diagnosis of overweight/obesity, and counseling for diet and physical activity were achieved. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The proposed measures for systematically assessing the integration of obesity guidelines in primary care are feasible quality indicators and useful for evidence-based decision making. ©2012 The Author(s) Journal compilation ©2012 American Association of Nurse Practitioners.