What to expect when you're evaluating healthcare improvement

"Although valuable, evaluation is often complicated by tensions and friction between evaluators, implementers and other stakeholders. Drawing on the literature, we suggest that these tensions can arise from a lack of shared understanding of the goals of the evaluation; confusion about roles, relationships and responsibilities; data burdens; issues of data flows and confidentiality; the discomforts of being studied and the impact of disappointing or otherwise unwelcome results. We present a possible approach to managing these tensions "

What to expect when you're evaluating healthcare improvement: a concordat approach to managing collaboration and uncomfortable realities
L Brewster, EL Aveling, G Martin, C Tarrant, M Dixon-Woods
BMJ Quality and Safety 2015;24:318-324 doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2014-003732

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Evaluation: what to consider

"Inspired by the most commonly asked questions, this guide is intended to assist those new to evaluation by suggesting methodological and practical considerations and providing resources to support further learning." 

Evaluation: what to consider: Commonly asked questions about how to approach evaluation of quality improvement in health care
The Health Foundation
March 2015

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Designing quality improvement initiatives: the action effect method

"The action effect method gives structure to the identification and articulation of programme theory, an important step of quality improvement initiative development. It provides a framework to guide execution and evaluation of an initiative, a focal point for other quality improvement methods and a communication tool to engage stakeholders."

Designing quality improvement initiatives: the action effect method, a structured approach to identifying and articulating programme theory

JE Reed, C McNicholas, T Woodcock, L Issen, D Bell
BMJ Quality and Safety 2014;23:1040-1048 doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2014-003103

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Community mental health survey 2014

"While there were some positive findings, particularly for questions asking about contact with staff, survey results show that improvements are needed across many other areas asked about in the questionnaire. This includes:

communication and information.
reviewing care.
involvement in decisions.
support and understanding with other areas of life."

Community mental health survey 2014
Care Quality Commission

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Patient reports of the outcomes of treatment: a structured review of approaches

"The purpose of this was to identify suitable candidate questions for a short instrument to tap patient evaluations of in-patient hospital interventions."

Patient reports of the outcomes of treatment: a structured review of approaches
H Lloyd, C Jenkinson, M Hadi, E Gibbons, R Fitzpatrick
Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 2014, 12:5

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Performance-based financing as a health system reform

"The paper lays out a broad framework within which indicators can be prioritised for monitoring and evaluation of performance-based financing or other health system reforms."

Performance-based financing as a health system reform: mapping the key dimensions for monitoring and evaluation
S Witter, J Toonen, B Meessen, J Kagubare, G Fritsche, K Vaughan
BMC Health Services Research 2013, 13:367

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Measuring a caring culture in hospitals

"Characteristics of the instruments included in this review could provide useful input for the design of a reliable and valid instrument for measuring a caring culture in hospitals."

Measuring a caring culture in hospitals: a systematic review of instruments
G Hesselink, E Kuis, M Pijnenburg, H Wollersheim
BMJ Open, 2013, 3:e003416

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Advancing the science and practice of scale-up and spread in health

"Conference attendees identified and prioritized five recommendations (and corresponding sub-recommendations) for advancing scale-up and spread in health: increase awareness, facilitate information exchange, develop new methods, apply new approaches for evaluation, and expand capacity."

A stakeholder-driven agenda for advancing the science and practice of scale-up and spread in health
WE Norton, CJ McCannon, MW Schall, BS Mittman
Implementation Science, 2012, 7:118

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Evaluating disease management programmes: learning from diverse approaches across Europe

"The project reviewed the policy context for, and approaches to, chronic disease management in 13 European countries, using a structured data collection instrument that organised chronic disease management around four components: active patient involvement, service design, decision support and clinical information systems."

Evaluating disease management programmes: learning from diverse approaches across Europe
E Nolte, et al.
RAND Europe
October 2012

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Consumer quality index (CQ-index) in an accident and emergency department

"The Consumer Quality index for the accident and emergency department measures patients' experiences of A&E healthcare performance."

The consumer quality index (CQ-index) in an accident and emergency department: development and first evaluation
N Bos, LM Sturms, AJP Schrijvers, HF van Stel
BMC Health Services Research, 2012, 12:284

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Provider-level risk-adjusted quality measurement for inpatient rehabilitation facilities

"This report should be of interest to researchers involved either in inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRF) or the development of IRF quality reports or in outcomes studies that require risk adjustment."

Provider-level risk-adjusted quality measurement for inpatient rehabilitation facilities
AW Dick, PJ Huckfeldt, H Liu, H Yu, A Mehrotra, SL Lovejoy, JS Ashwood
RAND Corporation
2012

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Pan-London tuberculosis services

"This paper has identified key issues relating to London's TB services' organisation, delivery, professional workforce and skill mix."

Pan-London tuberculosis services: a service evaluation
R Belling, S McLaren, M Boudioni, LP Woods
BMC Health Services Research, 2012, 12:203

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Overarching questions for patient surveys

"This report describes a project to test and develop a new overarching measure of patient experience for use in a wider range of settings."

Overarching questions for patient surveys: development report for the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
C Graham, S MacCormick
Picker Institute Europe
June 2012

Read more here.

Developing and validating disease management evaluation methods for European healthcare systems

"We reviewed the policy context for, and approaches to, chronic disease management in 13 European countries."

DISMEVAL: Developing and validating disease management evaluation methods for European healthcare systems: final report
E Nolte, S Hinrichs
RAND Europe
April 2012

Read more here.

An accompanying document for users and funders is available here.

National evaluation of the Department of Health's integrated care pilots

"This report is the final output of a two-year, real-time evaluation of the Department of Health (DH) Integrated Care Pilots (ICPs)."

National evaluation of the Department of Health's integrated care pilots
RAND Europe, Ernst & Young LLP
March 2012

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An evaluation of the use of performance measures in health care

The study addressed the following four overarching questions, with subtopics listed below each
question:

1. How are performance measures being used in practice?
2. What factors are influencing measure use?
3. What types of system changes have occurred as a result of measure use?
4. What improvement areas could facilitate the use of standardized endorsed performance measures by various end users?

An evaluation of the use of performance measures in health care
CL Damberg, ME Sorbero, SL Lovejoy, K Lauderdale, S Wertheimer, A Smith, D Waxman, C Schnyer
National Quality Forum, RAND Corporation
December 2011

Read more here.

Evaluating healthcare quality improvement

On the 6th June 2011, the Health Foundation hosted a roundtable event, where senior figures from the field of improvement science came together to discuss interventions to improve the quality of healthcare.

Evaluating healthcare quality improvement: a summary of learning from a Health Foundation roundtable
The Health Foundation
November 2011

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Patient safety competency assessment

"This review aims to identify the available assessment tools for different patient safety domains and evaluate them according to Miller’s four competency levels."

Assessing the patient safety competencies of healthcare professionals: a systematic review
A Okuyama, K Martowirono, B Bijnen
BMJ Quality and Safety, 2011, 20(11):991-1000

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Disease management evaluation

"Many countries in Europe are experimenting with new, structured approaches to better manage the care of patients with chronic illness and so improve its quality and ultimately patient health outcomes."

Disease management evaluation: a comprehensive review of current state of the art
A Conklin, E Nolte
RAND Europe Technical Report
December 2010

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High-value, cost-conscious health care

"This article discusses 3 key concepts for understanding how to assess the value of health care interventions."

High-value, cost-conscious health care: concepts for clinicians to evaluate the benefits, harms, and costs of medical interventions
DK Owens, A Qaseem, R Chou, P Shekelle
Annals of Internal Medicine, 2011 154(3):174-180

Read more here.