CHIA Publishes Dashboard to Measure the Health of the Massachusetts Primary Care System

DATE: May 16, 2024

The Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA), in collaboration with Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP), is releasing the latest primary care dashboard to monitor the health of primary care across the Commonwealth.

A high-functioning primary care system can lead to better patient outcomes, lower costs, and more equitable care. Adequate access to primary care may also reduce unnecessary reliance on emergency department visits. This dashboard aims to provide a factual foundation to inform targeted policy solutions and investments as well as monitor the impact of such reforms.

This year, an interactive dashboard is also available, enabling users to stratify certain measures by geography, payer type, and sociodemographic dimensions.

The dashboard measures the health of primary care across four domains:

• Finance – metrics focused on spending for primary care services 
  
  
• Capacity – metrics focused on the primary care workforce and pipeline 
  
  
• Performance – metrics focused on access and care  
  
  
• Equity – metrics focused on assessing inequities in the primary care system 

This refresh of the Massachusetts primary care dashboard updates previously published metrics with the latest data available. New measures in this year’s dashboard include childhood immunization status as well as data around medical school graduates entering primary care.

To see key findings from this year’s metrics, as well as explore the interactive dashboard, click here.