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ABPM Clinical Informatics study materials
ABPM Clinical Informatics study resources

ABPM Clinical Informatics practice questions

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Question 1Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

Which element of a clinical decision support rule specifies the data that must be present before the rule can fire?

  1. The override reason
  2. The action
  3. The eligibility criteria Correct answer.
  4. The trigger

Explanation

CDS rules are commonly described in terms of triggers, eligibility criteria, and actions. Eligibility criteria define the patient characteristics and data values that must be satisfied for the rule to apply. The trigger only initiates evaluation; it does not itself define required data.

Question 2Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A clinician wants to know the strength of a guideline recommendation and the quality of supporting evidence. Which standardized approach should be used to convey this?

  1. A numeric alert priority score
  2. A structured evidence-grading system such as GRADE Correct answer.
  3. A free-text note appended to the order
  4. An ICD-10 diagnosis code

Explanation

Structured grading systems such as GRADE separate the strength of a recommendation from the certainty of the underlying evidence. This allows clinicians to interpret how strongly a guideline endorses an action. Free text and diagnosis codes do not communicate evidence quality.

Question 3Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

Which measure best reflects the proportion of alerts that clinicians act on when a CDS intervention is deployed?

  1. Alert acceptance rate Correct answer.
  2. Alert firing rate
  3. Alert volume per clinician
  4. Alert latency

Explanation

Acceptance rate is the proportion of fired alerts that result in the recommended action, such as accepting an order. It is a direct indicator of whether the CDS is influencing decisions. Firing rate and volume describe how often alerts appear, not how often they are followed.

Question 4Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A hospital implements a rule that suggests a venous thromboembolism prophylaxis order for every admitted adult. Which CDS intervention type does this represent?

  1. Order suggestion Correct answer.
  2. Reference information
  3. Order set
  4. Documentation template

Explanation

An order suggestion presents a specific order for the clinician to accept or decline at the point of care. Order sets group multiple orders for a clinical scenario, whereas a single suggested order is an order suggestion. Reference information provides knowledge without proposing an action.

Question 5Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

Which is the primary purpose of a clinical practice guideline in decision support?

  1. To define billing codes for reimbursement
  2. To summarize evidence into recommendations for typical patients Correct answer.
  3. To replace clinician judgment with automated rules
  4. To document individual patient preferences

Explanation

Guidelines synthesize evidence into recommendations intended to inform care for typical patients while allowing clinician judgment for individual circumstances. They are not designed to eliminate judgment or to serve billing or documentation purposes.

Question 6Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

Which alert design feature is most likely to reduce alert fatigue without removing clinically important warnings?

  1. Displaying all alerts as modal pop-ups
  2. Removing clinician override capabilities
  3. Increasing the number of alerts per order
  4. Tiering alerts by severity and suppressing low-value ones Correct answer.

Explanation

Tiering alerts by clinical severity and suppressing low-value alerts reduces noise while preserving important warnings. Modal pop-ups and higher alert volume increase interruption and fatigue. Removing overrides can create unsafe workarounds.

Question 7Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

In evidence-based practice, which component is combined with the best available research evidence to guide a clinical decision?

  1. Vendor default settings
  2. Insurance reimbursement rules
  3. Hospital marketing priorities
  4. Clinician expertise and patient values Correct answer.

Explanation

Evidence-based practice integrates the best research evidence with clinician expertise and patient values and preferences. Administrative, vendor, or payer considerations are not the defining components of evidence-based decisions.

Question 8Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A CDS rule checks for a drug-allergy interaction at the moment an order is signed. Which CDS trigger type is this?

  1. Scheduled batch trigger
  2. Event-driven trigger Correct answer.
  3. Time-based reminder
  4. Manual on-demand trigger

Explanation

Event-driven triggers fire in response to a specific action, such as signing a medication order. Scheduled and time-based triggers fire on a clock rather than on a user action. Manual triggers require the user to request the check.

Question 9Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A CDS alert fires for patients with a creatinine above 1.5 mg/dL, but the laboratory sends creatinine values in µmol/L for some interfaced sites. What is the most likely consequence?

  1. The alert will automatically convert units
  2. The alert will fire more accurately
  3. The alert logic may misfire because of unit mismatch Correct answer.
  4. The alert will be permanently disabled

Explanation

Threshold logic depends on consistent units; if values arrive in different units without conversion, comparisons are invalid and the alert may fire incorrectly or fail to fire. Systems do not automatically infer unit conversions unless explicitly configured.

Question 10Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A guideline recommends statins for adults aged 40 to 75 with diabetes. A CDS rule is built to match this recommendation. Which implementation detail most directly determines whether the rule identifies the correct population?

  1. The coded representation of diabetes and age in the data model Correct answer.
  2. The color of the alert icon
  3. The name of the rule author
  4. The length of the alert text

Explanation

Correctly identifying the population depends on how diabetes and age are represented and queried in the structured data model. Cosmetic and textual attributes do not affect population selection. Accurate value sets and coded concepts are essential.

Question 11Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A team wants to reduce alert fatigue for a duplicate-therapy warning that has a very low acceptance rate. Which action is most consistent with CDS governance best practice?

  1. Review the alert's evidence and refine or retire it based on measured value Correct answer.
  2. Route the alert to the patient portal
  3. Disable all medication alerts system-wide
  4. Increase the alert's severity to force acknowledgement

Explanation

Governance best practice is to review low-value alerts against evidence and local data, then refine or retire them. Broad disabling risks losing valuable warnings, and escalating severity worsens fatigue. Patient-facing routing does not address clinician workflow burden.

Question 12Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

Which study design generally provides the strongest evidence for the effect of a therapeutic intervention when conducted rigorously?

  1. Expert opinion
  2. Cross-sectional survey
  3. Case series
  4. Randomized controlled trial Correct answer.

Explanation

A rigorously conducted randomized controlled trial minimizes confounding through randomization and is generally the strongest design for causal questions about therapy. Case series, expert opinion, and cross-sectional surveys are more susceptible to bias and confounding.

Question 13Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A CDS tool calculates a sepsis risk score and displays it to clinicians but provides no recommended action. Which design gap is most likely to limit its impact on care?

  1. Overuse of order sets
  2. Lack of actionable recommendation Correct answer.
  3. Insufficient alert color contrast
  4. Excessive data granularity

Explanation

CDS is most effective when it provides a specific, actionable recommendation rather than a bare risk score. Without a suggested action, clinicians may not know how to respond, limiting impact. Display attributes are secondary to actionability.

Question 14Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A clinical team wants to embed a national guideline into an electronic order set. Which step should occur first to ensure the order set reflects current evidence?

  1. Notify the vendor of the order set name
  2. Choose the order set icon
  3. Assign a billing code to the order set
  4. Appraise the guideline's currency, quality, and applicability to the local population Correct answer.

Explanation

Before localizing a guideline, the team should appraise its currency, methodological quality, and applicability to the local population. This ensures the embedded recommendations are valid and relevant. Cosmetic, coding, and naming steps do not establish evidence validity.

Question 15Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

Which approach best supports maintaining a CDS knowledge base as evidence evolves?

  1. One-time implementation with no review
  2. Version control with scheduled evidence review Correct answer.
  3. Annual deletion of all rules
  4. Relying solely on vendor defaults

Explanation

Version control combined with scheduled evidence review allows changes to be tracked and rules to be updated as evidence evolves. One-time implementation, mass deletion, and reliance on defaults risk outdated or unsupported logic.

Question 16Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A decision support rule uses a positive predictive value of 0.10 for a rare condition. What does this most directly imply about the rule's alerts?

  1. Most alerts will be true positives
  2. Most alerts will be false positives Correct answer.
  3. The rule cannot be evaluated
  4. The rule has perfect sensitivity

Explanation

Positive predictive value is the proportion of positive alerts that are true positives. A PPV of 0.10 means only about 10% of alerts represent true cases, so most alerts are false positives. PPV does not describe sensitivity.

Question 17Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A clinician overrides a drug-drug interaction alert and documents a reason. What is the primary value of capturing structured override reasons?

  1. To increase alert volume
  2. To satisfy billing requirements
  3. To replace clinical documentation
  4. To support alert refinement and safety surveillance Correct answer.

Explanation

Structured override reasons allow organizations to analyze why alerts are declined and to refine or retire low-value alerts while monitoring safety. They do not increase alert volume or substitute for clinical documentation.

Question 18Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

Which metric best captures whether a CDS reminder changed clinician behavior compared with a pre-implementation period?

  1. Pre-post difference in the target ordering rate Correct answer.
  2. Number of users logged in
  3. Number of alerts configured
  4. Server uptime

Explanation

A pre-post comparison of the target behavior, such as the ordering rate, measures whether the reminder changed practice. Configuration counts, uptime, and login counts describe system activity rather than clinical behavior change.

Question 19Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A hospital wants to implement a CDS rule for a newly approved drug whose long-term safety data are limited. Which approach best reflects evidence-based caution?

  1. Apply the rule to all patients without restriction
  2. Rely on the manufacturer's marketing materials
  3. Wait indefinitely for definitive evidence
  4. Implement with monitoring and plan for periodic evidence reassessment Correct answer.

Explanation

When evidence is limited, implementing with monitoring and planning periodic reassessment balances benefit and uncertainty. Unrestricted application ignores uncertainty, indefinite delay forgoes potential benefit, and marketing materials are not unbiased evidence.

Question 20Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A CDS rule is based on a guideline that recommended a treatment threshold of 140 mmHg, but a newer guideline recommends 130 mmHg. The rule still uses 140 mmHg. What is the most accurate description of the rule's status?

  1. It is evidence-based because a guideline supported it
  2. It is invalid because thresholds never change
  3. It is equivalent to the newer guideline
  4. It is outdated relative to current evidence Correct answer.

Explanation

The rule reflects an older recommendation and is therefore outdated relative to current evidence. Being based on a past guideline does not make it current. Thresholds can and do change as evidence evolves.

Question 21Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A CDS alert for renal dosing has high sensitivity but low specificity. Which consequence is most expected?

  1. Few true cases will be missed, but many patients without the condition will trigger alerts Correct answer.
  2. The alert will have high positive predictive value
  3. Few false positives will occur
  4. The alert will require no override capability

Explanation

High sensitivity means few true cases are missed, while low specificity means many patients without the condition will also trigger the alert. Low specificity generally reduces positive predictive value. Override capability remains necessary regardless.

Question 22Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A team reports that a CDS intervention reduced adverse events in a before-after study, but concurrent workflow changes were also introduced. Which threat to validity is most relevant?

  1. History effect from co-occurring changes Correct answer.
  2. Loss of blinding
  3. Measurement ceiling effect
  4. Randomization failure

Explanation

A before-after design cannot isolate the CDS effect when other changes occur concurrently; this is a history effect. Ceiling effects, randomization failure, and loss of blinding apply to other designs or conditions and are not the primary concern here.

Question 23Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

An alert's positive predictive value is 0.05 in a low-prevalence setting. Which strategy most directly improves the proportion of true positives among fired alerts?

  1. Increasing alert display frequency
  2. Narrowing eligibility criteria to a higher-prevalence population Correct answer.
  3. Removing all override options
  4. Increasing the alert's sensitivity alone

Explanation

Positive predictive value depends on prevalence as well as test characteristics. Restricting the alert to a higher-prevalence population raises PPV. Increasing sensitivity alone may not improve PPV, and display frequency or removing overrides do not change the underlying probability.

Question 24Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Care

A CDS committee must decide between a rule with strong evidence but low clinician acceptance and a rule with weaker evidence but high acceptance. Which principle should guide the decision?

  1. Always choose the rule with higher acceptance
  2. Defer the decision to the software vendor
  3. Weigh evidence strength against local impact and address barriers to the evidence-based option Correct answer.
  4. Always choose the rule with stronger evidence regardless of workflow

Explanation

Decision support governance should weigh evidence strength against local impact and actively address barriers to adopting the evidence-based option. Choosing solely by acceptance or evidence strength ignores the other critical dimension, and vendors do not set local clinical policy.

Question 25Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

Which standard is most widely used to exchange clinical and administrative data between disparate health information systems using a common messaging framework?

  1. DICOM image transfer standard
  2. ICD-10-CM coding standard
  3. HL7 version 2 messaging standard Correct answer.
  4. NCPDP pharmacy claims standard

Explanation

HL7 v2 is the predominant messaging standard for exchanging clinical and administrative data between systems such as ADT feeds and orders. DICOM governs imaging, while ICD-10-CM and NCPDP serve coding and pharmacy claims respectively, not general clinical messaging.

Question 26Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

In an EHR, the master patient index (MPI) primarily serves which function?

  1. Storing scanned paper documents
  2. Encrypting data at rest
  3. Managing clinician scheduling templates
  4. Assigning a unique identifier to each patient across systems Correct answer.

Explanation

The MPI maintains a unique identifier and demographic record for each patient so records from multiple systems can be linked to the same person. It is the basis for patient identity management and record linkage.

Question 27Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

A clinician wants an EHR feature that displays a single consolidated view of a patient's key data such as allergies, medications, and recent results. Which EHR component is designed for this?

  1. The clinical data repository query tool
  2. The charge capture module
  3. The patient dashboard or summary view Correct answer.
  4. The problem list maintenance screen

Explanation

A patient dashboard or summary view aggregates key clinical data into a single screen for at-a-glance review. It is distinct from a raw repository query, a problem list, or billing functions.

Question 28Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

Which term describes the ability of different health information systems to exchange data and use the exchanged information meaningfully?

  1. Normalization
  2. Virtualization
  3. Redundancy
  4. Interoperability Correct answer.

Explanation

Interoperability is the capacity of systems to exchange and meaningfully use shared data. Redundancy, normalization, and virtualization are data or infrastructure concepts, not the cross-system exchange capability.

Question 29Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

Which of the following best describes a clinical decision support (CDS) rule triggered when a provider orders a medication to which the patient has a documented allergy?

  1. A real-time order-entry alert Correct answer.
  2. A patient portal message
  3. A data warehouse extract
  4. A batch claims submission

Explanation

Allergy checking at order entry is a real-time CDS intervention that fires during the ordering workflow. It is not a batch process or a retrospective extract.

Question 30Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

Under the HIPAA Security Rule, which safeguard category includes access controls, audit logs, and encryption?

  1. Physical safeguards
  2. Administrative safeguards
  3. Organizational safeguards
  4. Technical safeguards Correct answer.

Explanation

Technical safeguards are the technology-based controls such as access control, audit controls, integrity, and transmission security. Administrative and physical safeguards address policies and facility controls respectively.

Question 31Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

Which clinical vocabulary is specifically designed to represent nursing diagnoses, interventions, and outcomes?

  1. ICD-10-PCS
  2. SNOMED CT
  3. NANDA-I Correct answer.
  4. LOINC

Explanation

NANDA-I provides standardized nursing diagnoses, which pair with nursing intervention and outcome terminologies. LOINC covers laboratory and observations, SNOMED CT is a broad clinical terminology, and ICD-10-PCS codes inpatient procedures.

Question 32Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

An EHR sends an ADT (admit, discharge, transfer) message to a downstream system. Which HL7 message type signals that a patient has been admitted?

  1. ADT^A01 Correct answer.
  2. ADT^A04
  3. ADT^A03
  4. ADT^A08

Explanation

In HL7 v2, the A01 event represents an admit/visit notification. A03 is discharge, A08 is update, and A04 is registration.

Question 33Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

A hospital wants to receive structured laboratory results from external labs using a standard that identifies each test with a universal code. Which terminology is best suited for this?

  1. LOINC Correct answer.
  2. NDC
  3. CPT
  4. ICD-10-CM

Explanation

LOINC provides universal identifiers for laboratory tests and clinical observations, making it ideal for exchanging structured results. ICD-10-CM is for diagnoses, CPT for procedures, and NDC for drugs.

Question 34Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

A patient's records exist in two affiliated hospitals with slightly different demographic spellings. The integration engine uses probabilistic matching to link them. What is this process called?

  1. Order set management
  2. Patient identity resolution Correct answer.
  3. Results routing
  4. Data archiving

Explanation

Patient identity resolution (patient matching) is the process of determining when records from different sources refer to the same person, often using probabilistic algorithms. It is central to MPI maintenance.

Question 35Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

An informatics team implements a CDS alert but finds clinicians override it 95% of the time. Which action best addresses this alert fatigue?

  1. Route the alert to the billing department
  2. Tier alerts by clinical significance and suppress low-value ones Correct answer.
  3. Increase the alert's severity color
  4. Disable all CDS alerts system-wide

Explanation

Alert fatigue is best mitigated by prioritizing alerts by clinical importance and suppressing or retiring low-value alerts. Blanket disabling removes safety value, and cosmetic changes do not reduce override burden.

Question 36Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

Which exchange model allows a provider to query and retrieve a patient's records from other organizations at the point of care without a prior push of data?

  1. Directed push exchange
  2. Fax-based exchange
  3. Bulk data export
  4. Query-based exchange Correct answer.

Explanation

Query-based exchange lets a provider request patient information from other sources on demand. Directed push exchange sends data proactively to a known recipient.

Question 37Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

A regional HIE wants a common, standards-based way to send a summary of care document between EHRs. Which standard is designed for this purpose?

  1. HL7 v2 ORU
  2. X12 837
  3. DICOM
  4. C-CDA Correct answer.

Explanation

C-CDA (Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture) is the HL7 standard for structured clinical documents such as summaries of care. DICOM handles imaging, X12 837 is a claims transaction, and ORU is an observation result message.

Question 38Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

In a data warehouse feeding an EHR analytics dashboard, what does ETL stand for?

  1. Encrypt, Transfer, Log
  2. Enter, Track, Link
  3. Extract, Transform, Load Correct answer.
  4. Evaluate, Test, Launch

Explanation

ETL is Extract, Transform, Load, the process of pulling data from sources, transforming it to a consistent format, and loading it into a target store. It is foundational to analytics pipelines.

Question 39Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

A provider documents a note and signs it, after which the record is locked against further edits except by addendum. Which EHR principle does this reflect?

  1. Load balancing
  2. Data minimization
  3. Interoperability profiling
  4. Audit trail integrity and legal defensibility Correct answer.

Explanation

Locking signed records and permitting changes only via addenda preserves an accurate audit trail and supports legal defensibility of the record. It reflects record integrity rather than data minimization or performance concerns.

Question 40Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

Which role in an EHR is typically responsible for defining and maintaining order sets, templates, and clinical content?

  1. Network administrator
  2. Revenue cycle analyst
  3. Registration clerk
  4. Clinical informaticist Correct answer.

Explanation

Clinical informaticists bridge clinical practice and technology, building and maintaining order sets, templates, and CDS content. Registration, revenue cycle, and network roles do not own clinical content design.

Question 41Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

A health system must ensure that only clinicians involved in a patient's care can view that patient's record. Which access control model best fits this requirement?

  1. Shared generic login accounts
  2. Role-based access control alone
  3. Break-the-glass with role-based access Correct answer.
  4. Open access for all employees

Explanation

Role-based access combined with break-the-glass emergency override balances least privilege with the need for urgent access, and override use is audited. Open access and shared accounts violate least-privilege and accountability principles.

Question 42Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

A laboratory result is entered in the EHR and must trigger a notification to the ordering provider. Which system function primarily handles this routing?

  1. The results routing and notification engine Correct answer.
  2. The scheduling module
  3. The formulary manager
  4. The coding work queue

Explanation

Results routing and notification functions deliver incoming results to the responsible provider and manage acknowledgment. Formulary, scheduling, and coding modules serve other purposes.

Question 43Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

An organization wants to measure how often a CDS reminder leads to the intended action. Which metric best captures this?

  1. System uptime
  2. Alert override rate
  3. Alert firing rate
  4. Alert acceptance (compliance) rate Correct answer.

Explanation

The acceptance or compliance rate measures the proportion of times clinicians act on a CDS reminder as intended. Override and firing rates describe volume and rejection, not successful action.

Question 44Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

A patient requests an electronic copy of their record through an application programming interface (API) using a patient-facing app. Which federal requirement most directly supports this?

  1. The HIPAA Privacy Rule minimum necessary standard
  2. The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments
  3. The information blocking provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act Correct answer.
  4. The Stark Law physician self-referral rules

Explanation

The 21st Century Cures Act information blocking provisions, implemented through ONC rules requiring standardized APIs, support patient and app access to electronic health information. The minimum necessary standard governs uses and disclosures but does not itself mandate API access.

Question 45Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

A vendor claims its system is conformant with a FHIR implementation guide. What does conformance to an implementation guide primarily ensure?

  1. That the system will never experience downtime
  2. That the system replaces the need for a master patient index
  3. That all clinical terminology is identical across vendors
  4. That resources and interactions follow the specified profiles and constraints Correct answer.

Explanation

An implementation guide defines profiles, constraints, and interactions that conformant systems must follow so data can be exchanged predictably. It does not guarantee availability, eliminate identity management, or unify all terminologies.

Question 46Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

A hospital's audit logs show a clinician accessed records of patients not under their care on multiple occasions. What is the most appropriate first response under a compliance program?

  1. Immediately terminate the clinician without review
  2. Delete the audit logs to protect the organization
  3. Conduct a documented investigation and follow the organization's sanction policy Correct answer.
  4. Ignore the events because access was technically permitted

Explanation

Suspicious access should trigger a documented investigation and application of the organization's sanction policy, consistent with HIPAA audit and accountability expectations. Deleting logs or skipping review undermines compliance, and termination without review bypasses due process.

Question 47Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

During a health information exchange implementation, two systems interpret a laboratory value's units differently, causing a tenfold dosing error risk. Which mitigation best addresses semantic interoperability?

  1. Mapping to standardized units and coded concepts at the interface Correct answer.
  2. Expanding user training on the interface screens
  3. Adding more network bandwidth
  4. Increasing the audit log retention period

Explanation

Semantic interoperability requires shared meaning, achieved by mapping local units and codes to standardized terminologies and units at the interface. Bandwidth, logging, and training do not correct divergent data semantics.

Question 48Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

An informatics team evaluates whether a new EHR order-entry module reduces medication errors. Which study design element most strengthens the causal inference?

  1. A single post-implementation survey of clinicians
  2. A pre-post comparison with a concurrent control unit Correct answer.
  3. Vendor marketing case studies
  4. Anecdotal reports from one physician

Explanation

A pre-post comparison with a concurrent control unit helps separate the intervention effect from secular trends, strengthening causal inference. Surveys, anecdotes, and marketing materials lack control and objective outcome measurement.

Question 49Data Analytics, Quality Measurement, and Population Health

Which measure type is calculated by counting patients who meet a criterion and dividing by all patients eligible for that criterion during a reporting period?

  1. Proportion measure Correct answer.
  2. Structural measure
  3. Ratio measure
  4. Continuous variable measure

Explanation

A proportion has a numerator that is a subset of the denominator and is expressed as a percentage. Continuous variable measures report a mean or median value rather than a count, and ratios allow non-nested numerators and denominators. Structural measures describe capacity or systems rather than patient outcomes.

Question 50Data Analytics, Quality Measurement, and Population Health

A clinic reports that 82% of its diabetic patients had an HbA1c test in the past year. This figure is best described as which type of performance result?

  1. An outcome measure result
  2. A balancing measure result
  3. A process measure result Correct answer.
  4. A cost-efficiency measure result

Explanation

Testing for HbA1c reflects whether a recommended care activity was performed, which is a process measure. Outcome measures reflect the patient's health status, and balancing measures detect unintended consequences of improvement work. Cost-efficiency measures relate resource use to outcomes.