QOF Plus Year 1 - Imperial College London

QOF+ report on alcoholProposed indicatorsIndicatorQOF+pointsPaymentstages+ ALCOHOL 1. The percentage of patients on one or morepractice registers for CVD At-Risk, Diabetes, Stroke and TIA,Hypertension and CHD who have had AUDIT-C or FASTrecorded on the practice system within the previous 17months+ ALCOHOL 2. The proportion of patients who screen positiveusing either AUDIT-C or FAST within the previous 17 monthswho are subsequently recorded as having a brief interventionfor alcohol misuse15 20-70%30 40-90%It is prerequisite that in order to receive payment for + ALCOHOL 2, practices have reached thelower threshold for + ALCOHOL 1.Practices may also wish to consider participating in the Directed Enhanced Service (DES) forAlcohol 2009/10 which provides additional incentives for screening newly registered patients inprimary care settings.BackgroundResearch by Kaner et al. (1999a) suggests that up to 98 percent of hazardous and harmfuldrinkers may be missed in primary care due to a reliance on clinical history and signs. Themajority of patients in primary care do not object to being asked about their alcohol consumptionif there are good reasons to do so (Wallace and Haines, 1984; Richmond et al., 1996). Primarycare is an ideal setting within which to deliver brief interventions for alcohol misuse in view of itsaccess to the majority of the population, the absence of stigma attached to attending primarycare settings, the presence of ‘teachable moments’ in consultations about alcohol-relatedillnesses, and the generally high credibility in the community of GPs and other primary careprofessionals (Babor, Ritson and Hodgson, 1986).27