Journal Club: The NHAMCS Database, Chart Review Methods, and More on Regression Modeling

Editor's Capsule Summary for Schuur et al¹ 

What is already known on this topic

The National Quality Forum Expert Panel for Emergency Care recently endorsed a quality indicator to measure the performance of pregnancy testing in women aged 14 to 50 years who present to the emergency department (ED) with abdominal pain.

What question this study addressed

The performance of this quality measure was assessed in a national dataset (National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey [NHAMCS]) and by chart review at 4 academic hospital EDs to see whether the 2 methods produced consistent results.

What this study adds to our knowledge

The nationally representative database (NHAMCS) significantly underestimated the measurement of pregnancy testing compared with the chart review.

How this might change clinical practice

Although these findings will not change clinical practice, they demonstrate the dangers and difficulties of using databases to measure quality indicators.