Introduction: A concise representation of different primary and ambulatory care quality indicators can be very useful for quickly understanding the data and defining appropriate intervention strategies. The objectives of this study are to implement a graphical representation based on the TreeMap, a tool capable of summarizing results from heterogeneous indicators, with different measurement scales and thresholds, and take advantage of TreeMap's potential to measure the indirect impact of the Sars-CoV-2 epidemic on primary and ambulatory care processes.
Methods: Seven healthcare areas were considered each defined by a set of different indicators representative of the area. A discrete score ranging from 1 (very high quality) to 5 (very low quality) was assigned to the value of each indicator, based on the level of adherence to evidence-based recommendations. Finally, the score of each healthcare area is obtained as the weighted average of the scores of the representative indicators. The TreeMap is calculated for each Local health authority (Lha) of the Lazio Region. In order to assess the impact of the epidemic, a comparison was made between the results observed in 2019 and those observed in 2020.
Results: As an example, the results of one of the 10 Lhas of the Lazio Region have been reported. Compared to 2019, in 2020 there was an improvement in primary and ambulatory healthcare regarding all of the evaluated areas, with the exception of the metabolic area which remained stable. "Avoidable" hospitalizations have decreased, such as those for heart failure, Copd and diabetes. The incidence of cardio-cerebrovascular events following myocardial infarction or ischemic stroke has decreased, and inappropriate visits to emergency room have reduced. Furthermore, after decades of overprescribing, the use of drugs with a high risk of inappropriateness, such as antibiotics and aerosolized corticosteroids, has significantly decreased.
Discussion: The TreeMap has proven to be a valid tool for evaluating the quality of primary care, summarizing evidence from different and heterogeneous indicators. The improvements in quality levels observed in 2020, compared to 2019, should be interpreted with extreme caution because they could represent a paradox generated by the indirect effects of the Sars-CoV-2 epidemic. If, in the case of the epidemic, the distorting factors can be easily identified, in different and more ordinary evaluative analyses the "research for the causes" could be much more complex.