A new report prepared for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality examines research on eight topics related to healthcare quality.
The report, "Through the Quality Kaleidoscope: Reflections on the Science and Practice of Improving Health Care Quality," is a methods research report prepared for AHRQ by Stanford-UCSF Evidence-based Practice Center (operating under RAND Evidence-based Practice Center). The report collates research under AHRQ's series "Closing the Quality Gap: Revisiting the State of the Science," which includes eight topics:
• Effectiveness of bundled payment programs
• Effectiveness of the patient-centered medical home
• Quality improvement strategies to address health disparities
• Effectiveness of medication adherence interventions
• Effectiveness of public reporting
• Prevention of healthcare-associated infections
• QI measurement of outcomes for people with disabilities
• Healthcare and palliative care for patients with advanced and serious illness
Each EPC reviewed the peer-review literature for the eight topics. They found several common challenges, including "difficulty in synthesizing the evidence due to heterogeneity in choice of outcomes measures; limited ability to draw conclusions due to weaknesses in study design and incomplete reporting; and difficulty applying traditional systematic review methods to the multifaceted, context-dependent, systems-level interventions typical of the QI field. Future research will be strengthened by consistent use of a core set of outcomes measures, more robust study designs, more complete reporting of intervention characteristics and contextual factors and development of additional systematic review methods specific to the QI field," according to the report.
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The report, "Through the Quality Kaleidoscope: Reflections on the Science and Practice of Improving Health Care Quality," is a methods research report prepared for AHRQ by Stanford-UCSF Evidence-based Practice Center (operating under RAND Evidence-based Practice Center). The report collates research under AHRQ's series "Closing the Quality Gap: Revisiting the State of the Science," which includes eight topics:
• Effectiveness of bundled payment programs
• Effectiveness of the patient-centered medical home
• Quality improvement strategies to address health disparities
• Effectiveness of medication adherence interventions
• Effectiveness of public reporting
• Prevention of healthcare-associated infections
• QI measurement of outcomes for people with disabilities
• Healthcare and palliative care for patients with advanced and serious illness
Each EPC reviewed the peer-review literature for the eight topics. They found several common challenges, including "difficulty in synthesizing the evidence due to heterogeneity in choice of outcomes measures; limited ability to draw conclusions due to weaknesses in study design and incomplete reporting; and difficulty applying traditional systematic review methods to the multifaceted, context-dependent, systems-level interventions typical of the QI field. Future research will be strengthened by consistent use of a core set of outcomes measures, more robust study designs, more complete reporting of intervention characteristics and contextual factors and development of additional systematic review methods specific to the QI field," according to the report.
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