Improving quality measurement for dementia care

Abstract

Nearly 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia (ADRD). Timely detection, quality of care, and access to services for people with ADRD remain poor. Broad acceptance and implementation of quality standards may help improve care processes, outcomes, and inequities in ADRD care. We review existing quality measures for ADRD and identify care domains that lack well-developed measures or for which uptake of existing measures is low. Increasing the use of existing evidence-based ADRD quality measures for health system performance improvement, pragmatic research, and Alternative Payment Models like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model, launched in 2023, may promote changes in care delivery and help address disparities in dementia care. Highlights US dementia care needs better measurement tools to assess quality and inequities. Increased use of current Alzheimer's disease and related dementias quality measures is urgently needed to improve care. Consensus on high-quality dementia care is vital for health system expectations. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model tests a new payment strategy to enhance dementia care quality. Other payers can boost measurement to drive quality care like the GUIDE Model.