Health Care Quality Indicators Research Articles

The Usefulness of Present-on-Admission Data as an Indicator of Healthcare Quality Evaluation Using the Korean National Hospital Discharge in-Depth Injury Survey Data from 2006 to 2019.

Comorbidities of a principal diagnosis have varying impacts on disease and require different management depending on the onset timing. This study investigated the usefulness of present-on-admission (POA), specifically focusing on decubitus ulcers, delirium, and hypokalemia, as an indicator of healthcare quality. We analyzed patient discharge data for 14 years from 2006 to 2019 using Korean National Hospital Discharge In-Depth Injury Survey (KNHDIS). Out of 3,231,731 discharged patients, 19,871 had secondary diagnosis codes for decubitus ulcers (n=10,390, 52.3%), delirium (n=6103, 30.7%), or hypokalemia (n=3378, 17.0%). Analysis of patients with secondary diagnoses of decubitus ulcers, delirium, or hypokalemia revealed notable differences in demographics, including gender distribution, mean age, admission route, insurance type, surgical intervention rates, mortality rates, and length of stay (LOS). Among patients with one of the top 20 principal diagnoses, those with secondary diagnoses of decubitus ulcers, delirium, or hypokalemia exhibited higher odds of surgery, increased mortality risks, and longer LOS compared to those without these secondary diagnoses. All three of these diseases commonly occur postoperatively or during treatment and thus should be designated as potentially preventable complications that require special attention, and should also be considered as quality-of-care indicators.

Association of socioeconomic disadvantage with lower patient satisfaction at an academic radiation oncology center.

347 Background: The correlation between socioeconomic status and healthcare outcomes is well-established. Patient satisfaction serves as a crucial indicator of healthcare quality, however, it is unclear if patient satisfaction relates to patient socioeconomic status. To assess socioeconomic status, the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) is utilized, encompassing factors such as income, education, employment, and housing quality to measure the status of a neighborhood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if there was a correlation between socioeconomic status and the likelihood a patient would recommend the facility or provider. Methods: This is a single-institution study evaluating the responses to a CMS approved patient satisfaction vendor survey of patients seen at an outpatient academic radiation oncology department from May 2021 through March 2023. ADI was collected using the Neighborhood Atlas, including both national percentiles and state deciles, with the higher values indicating greater socioeconomic disadvantage. Univariate (UVA) and multivariate (MVA) logistic regression analyses were conducted using the survey recommendation scores between 0 and 10 as the primary outcome. We used the score ≥9 to represent increased likelihood for recommendation for facility or provider and <9 represented decreased likelihood. Results: There were 5,403 survey results included in our analysis. The mean state and national ADI in our cohort were 3.9 (range 1-10) and 50.35, respectively. Patients with state and national ADI scores below the mean were more likely to recommend the provider than those above the mean, 95.6% versus 93.6% (p=0.002) and 95.8% versus 93.6% (p<0.001), respectively. There was no difference in the likelihood of recommending the facility between the groups. On univariate analysis state ADI <3.9 (OR 1.46, p=0.016) and national ADI <50.35 (OR 1.43, p=0.023) were associated with increased likelihood to recommend the facility or provider. On multivariate analysis, state ADI <3.9 (OR 1.44, p=0.018) and national ADI <50.35 (OR 1.40, p=0.033) remained significant. Conclusions: The findings of this study highlight the significance of socioeconomic status as an independent factor influencing patient satisfaction and their likelihood to recommend a healthcare provider. Providers should consider the unique needs of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals.

Coverage uncertainty range: A new method for calculating uncertainty around summary statistics in healthcare quality indicators

Data from clinical health registries, such as medical quality registries, are often used as basis for healthcarequality indicators (QI). To aid the interpretation of quality indicators and support decisions, it is importantto quantify the uncertainty around the QI summary statistics. In this paper we suggest a novel method forquantifying such uncertainty: the Coverage uncertainty range. The method is based on the size of thepopulation present in the register relative to the total relevant population and does not make any assumptionsabout the sampling strategy or the value of the summary statistic. Furthermore, using both simulated dataand real-life data from a Norwegian medical quality registry, we illustrate why using confidence intervalswhen presenting healthcare quality indicators may lead to erroneous conclusions.

Characteristics of employment history and self-perceived barriers to healthcare access.

Research suggests that people in disadvantaged social positions are more likely to perceive barriers to accessing healthcare, especially to specialists and preventive services. In this study, we analyze if adversity during past employment histories (e.g. spells of unemployment) is linked to subsequent subjectively perceived barriers in healthcare access. Further, we investigate if the associations vary according to national healthcare access and quality indicators. We use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe with a study sample of 31 616 men and women aged 52-80 from 25 countries. Data include retrospective information on employment histories allowing us to derive characteristics of past careers, including the number of unemployment periods, main occupational position and pension contributions. Barriers to healthcare access are measured by self-perceived forgone care due to costs and unavailability of services. We apply multilevel Poisson regression for binary outcomes and test for cross-level interactions between career characteristics and national healthcare system characteristics. Career characteristics are linked to later self-perceived healthcare access barriers, consistently in the case of cost barriers and less consistently for unavailability of services. Associations are similar for men and women, and persist after controlling for current income, wealth and subjective health. We find no cross-level interactions between career characteristics and country-level healthcare access and quality indicators. Self-perceived barriers to healthcare access are linked to people's past working lives. More in-depth investigation is needed to identify the reasons for the lingering effects of characteristics of employment history on reduced healthcare access.

Implementing and evaluating care and support planning: a qualitative study of health professionals’ experiences in public polyclinics in Singapore

BackgroundTwo polyclinics in Singapore modified systems and trained health professionals to provide person-centred Care and Support Planning (CSP) for people with diabetes within a clinical trial. We aimed to investigate health professionals’ perspectives on CSP to inform future developments.MethodsQualitative research including 23 semi-structured interviews with 13 health professionals and 3 co-ordinators. Interpretive analysis, including considerations of how different understandings, enactments, experiences and evaluative judgements of CSP clustered across health professionals, and potential causal links between them.ResultsBoth polyclinic teams introduced CSP and sustained it through COVID-19 disruptions. The first examples health professionals gave of CSP ‘going well’ all involved patients who came prepared, motivated and able to modify behaviours to improve their biomedical markers, but health professionals also said that they only occasionally saw such patients in practice. Health professionals’ accounts of how they conducted CSP conversations varied: some interpretations and reported enactments were less clearly aligned with the developers’ person-centred aspirations than others. Health professionals brought different communication skill repertoires to their encounters and responded variably to challenges to CSP that arose from: the linguistic and educational diversity of patients in this polyclinic context; the cultural shift that CSP involved; workload pressures; organisational factors that limited relational and informational continuity of care; and policies promoting biomedical measures as key indicators of healthcare quality. While all participants saw potential in CSP, they differed in the extent to which they recognised relational and experiential benefits of CSP (beyond biomedical benefits), and their recommendations for continuing its use beyond the clinical trial were contingent on several considerations. Our analysis shows how narrower and broader interpretive emphases and initial skill repertoires can interact with situational challenges and respectively constrain or extend health professionals’ ability to refine their skills with experiential learning, reduce or enhance the potential benefits of CSP, and erode or strengthen motivation to use CSP.ConclusionHealth professionals’ interpretations of CSP, along with their communication skills, interact in complex ways with other features of healthcare systems and diverse patient-circumstance scenarios. They warrant careful attention in efforts to implement and evaluate person-centred support for people with long-term conditions.

Is there an association between out-of-pocket hospital costs, quality and care outcomes? A systematic review of contemporary evidence

BackgroundOut of pocket (OOP) costs vary substantially by health condition, procedure, provider, and service location. Evidence of whether this variation is associated with indicators of healthcare quality and/or health outcomes is lacking.MethodsThe current review aimed to explore whether higher OOP costs translate into better healthcare quality and outcomes for patients in inpatient settings. The review also aimed to identify the population and contextual-level determinants of inpatient out-of-pocket costs. A systematic electronic search of five databases: Scopus, Medline, Psych Info, CINAHL and Embase was conducted between January 2000 to October 2022. Study procedures and reporting complied with PRISMA guidelines. The protocol is available at PROSPERO (CRD42022320763).FindingsA total of nine studies were included in the final review. A variety of quality and health outcomes were examined in the included studies across a range of patient groups and specialities. The scant evidence available and substantial heterogeneity created challenges in establishing the nature of association between OOP costs and healthcare quality and outcomes. Nonetheless, the most consistent finding was no significant association between OOP cost and inpatient quality of care and outcomes.InterpretationThe review findings overall suggest no beneficial effect of higher OOP costs on inpatient quality of care and health outcomes. Further work is needed to elucidate the determinants of OOP hospital costs.FundingThis study was funded by Medibank Better Health Foundation.

The femtech revolution-A new approach to pregnancy management: Digital transformation of maternity care-The hybrid e-health perinatal clinic addressing the unmet needs of low- and middle-income countries.

Prenatal care and infant mortality rates are crucial indicators of healthcare quality. However, millions of women in low-income countries lack access to adequate care. Factors such as high-risk pregnancies and unmanaged diet increase the risk of developing complications during pregnancy, highlighting the need for continuous monitoring of maternal health. The increasing burden of non-communicable diseases represents a significant threat to fragile health systems. The lack of access to appropriate prenatal care and poor maternal and newborn health outcomes are major concerns in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). It emphasizes the need for innovative, integrative approaches to healthcare delivery, especially in pregnant women. The health services need to be reorganized holistically and effectively, focusing on factors that directly impact maternal, neonatal, and infant mortality, resulting in improved access to maternity services and survival of "at-risk" mothers and their offspring in many LMICs. Based on the FIGO (the International Federation of Gynecology & Obstetrics) recommendations of extending preconception care to the postpartum stage, the authors of this review have developed a new model of care-PregCare-based on the triple-intervention-based holistic and multidisciplinary maternal and fetal medicine model for low-risk pregnancies. This model will help transform the traditional model's high visitation frequency into a safe and reduced office visit, while increasing virtual connections, point of care and self-care with doctors, nurses, and community-based providers of self-care. This shall be based on a sophisticated central PregCare call center powered by innovative technologies combined with experienced personnel in perinatal management (doctors and nurses/midwives).

A small area model to assess temporal trends and sub-national disparities in healthcare quality

Monitoring subnational healthcare quality is important for identifying and addressing geographic inequities. Yet, health facility surveys are rarely powered to support the generation of estimates at more local levels. With this study, we propose an analytical approach for estimating both temporal and subnational patterns of healthcare quality indicators from health facility survey data. This method uses random effects to account for differences between survey instruments; space-time processes to leverage correlations in space and time; and covariates to incorporate auxiliary information. We applied this method for three countries in which at least four health facility surveys had been conducted since 1999 – Kenya, Senegal, and Tanzania – and estimated measures of sick-child care quality per WHO Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) guidelines at programmatic subnational level, between 1999 and 2020. Model performance metrics indicated good out-of-sample predictive validity, illustrating the potential utility of geospatial statistical models for health facility data. This method offers a way to jointly estimate indicators of healthcare quality over space and time, which could then provide insights to decision-makers and health service program managers.

Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of patient-reported outcome measures in Arabic speaking countries: A scoping review

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are increasingly recognized as an indicator of healthcare quality and safety. Over the past decades, there has been a growing interest in using PROMs in Arabic-speaking populations. However, there is a paucity of data regarding the quality of their cross-cultural adaptation (CCA) and measurement properties. To identify PROMs that have been developed, validated or cross-culturally adapted to Arabic and evaluate methodological qualities of CCA and measurement properties. MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, IPA, and ISI Web of Science were searched using search terms 'PROMs', 'Arabic countries', 'CCA', and 'psychometric properties'. Measurement properties were evaluated using COSMIN quality criteria and CCA quality was assessed using the Oliveria rating method. This review included 260 studies with 317 PROMs, focusing on psychometric testing (83.8%), CCA (75.8%), utilizing PROMs as outcome measures (13.4%), and developing PROMs (2.3%). Out of the 201 cross-culturally adapted PROMs, forward translation was the most frequently reported component of CCA (n=178), followed by back translation (n=174). Out of the 235 PROMs that reported measurement properties, internal consistency was the most frequently reported measurement property (n=214), followed by reliability (n=160) and hypotheses testing (n=143). Other measurement properties were less reported, including responsiveness (n=36), criterion validity (n=22), measurement error (n=12), and cross-cultural validity (n=10). The strongest measurement property was hypotheses testing (n=143), followed by reliability (n=132). There are several caveats regarding the quality of CCA and measurement properties of PROMs included in this review. Only 1 out of 317 Arabic PROMs met CCA and psychometric optimal quality criteria. Therefore, there is a need to improve the methodological quality of CCA and measurement properties of PROMs. This review provides valuable information for researchers and clinicians when choosing PROMs for practice and research. There were only 5 treatment-specific PROMs, indicating the necessity for more research focusing on development and CCA of such measures.

Measuring the Structural Capacity of Philippine Hospitals to Provide High-Quality Health Care

This paper measures Philippine hospitals’ management practices and service capability based on their structural inputs. The authors collected a wide range of data on hospital management and service delivery of selected public and private health facilities using a validated online profiling questionnaire. They identified the challenges and limitations that hospitals commonly encounter, particularly in governance and administration and service capacity. The authors recommend systematically collecting healthcare quality indicators and providing incentives and grants to enable the collection, measurement, and submission of data from health facilities.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND NURSES’ BEHAVIOUR IN IMPLEMENTING PATIENT SAFETY

Patient safety is an essential indicator of healthcare quality. The initial interview indicated that within a month, there is always a patient safety incident such as patient falls and medication errors. The organizational culture, vision, mission, goals, and leadership style surely have an impact on a nurse's behaviour when it comes to patient safety. Many research studies discovered that the culture of organization inherent in nurses impacts the quality of hospital services, and nurses can reflect themselves as professional nurses with the organizational performance culture. This study aimed to find a correlation between corporate culture and nurse’s behaviour to patient safety. This study used a quantitative correlational method with a cross-sectional approach. The sample consisted of 191 nurses who had been selected through accidental sampling. The questionnaires on organizational culture and nurse’s behaviour in patient safety are distributed online via Google Forms and have been tested for its validity and reliability on 31 nurses. This study was conducted from March 29 to June 30, 2020. More than half of the respondents observed a bad organizational culture, and more than half of the nurses demonstrated poor behaviour in implementing patient safety. The Spearman correlation test revealed no significant relationship between corporate culture and nurse’s behaviour in adopting patient safety. The hospital administration can provide coaching in terms of socialization, training, mentorship, and supervision through the head nurse or team leader.

Process-Modelling of Cross-Sector Healthcare Quality Indicators.

Quality indicators (QI) are a common method to ensure quality in healthcare. This paper is based on the so-called QI-KA project, which defined cross-sector QI for the Austrian healthcare system. However, to allow for automated conformance checking, the QI must be modelled in a formal way. The aim of this paper is to gather requirements on modelling languages and tools in healthcare, create models for one of the QI-KA project's QI and finally evaluate them. The QI-2 is modelled in the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) together with the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) to showcase and evaluate their application and suitability. The generated models show that BPMN and DMN are mostly appropriate for this use case and serve as a basis for automated conformance checking. We successfully showed that BPMN and DMN can be used to model cross-sector QI in a formal way to prepare for conformance checking. The field of application can be extended to other medical areas. To further improve quality in healthcare, outcomes from models and conformance-checking should be discussed in interdisciplinary teams.

Potentially Avoidable Hospitalizations by Asthma and COPD in Switzerland from 1998 to 2018: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Potentially avoidable hospitalizations (PAH) are commonly used as an indicator for healthcare quality and primary care performance. However, data are usually presented in a restricted timeframe and for a specific region, limiting the identification of trends and national patterns. We aimed in this study to calculate rates, identify clinical determinants, and estimate costs of PAH for two frequent lung diseases (asthma and COPD) in Switzerland between 1998 and 2018 using hospital discharge data available for patients aged ≥20 years. PAH were defined according to the Health Care Quality Indicators Project (HCQIP) from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The distribution of PAH in seven administrative regions (Leman, Mittelland, Northwest, Zurich, Eastern, Central, and Ticino) was calculated, along with PAH-associated total hospital days and Diagnosis-Related Group (DRG) estimated costs. Totals of 25,260 PAH for asthma and 135,069 PAH for COPD were identified in the 20-year period. The standardized rates of PAH per 100,000 people for asthma fluctuated from 18.7 in 1998 to 22.5 on 2018. The standardized rates of PAH per 100,000 people from COPD almost doubled from 77.4 in 1998 to 142.7 in 2018. In 2018, the estimated total costs of PAH amounted to 7.7 million CHF for asthma and 91.2 million CHF for COPD. We conclude that PAH for asthma and COPD represent a significant and unnecessary burden and costs of hospitalizations in Switzerland.

Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) in Surgery: Evaluation after Minimally Invasive Reduction and Percutaneous K-Wires Fixation for Intra-Articular Calcaneal Fractures

The optimal surgical treatment of intra-articular calcaneal fractures (IACF) is still under debate. In the literature, results are based on clinical or radiographical findings. Few studies have evaluated the effect of patient expectations on patient-reported outcomes after surgery and little is known about outcomes directly reported by the patient who experienced it. Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) may represent a viable and useful tool for evaluating the efficacy of the procedure and can be considered as an indicators of health-care quality. The aim of this study is to evaluate PROMs after minimally invasive reduction and percutaneous Kirschner-wires fixation for IACF, and to compare PROMs to pre-operative and last follow-up radiographic findings. 33 consecutive patients with IACF treated with minimally invasive reduction and percutaneous K-wires fixation were included. Data collection included demographics, pre-operative and last available Böhler and Gissane angle X-rays, foot function index (FFI), and foot and ankle outcome score (FAOS). At a mean follow up of 36.7 months, the mean FFI score was 24.3 ± 19.9 and the mean FAOS score was 68 ± 24.8. Patients with better Gissane angle showed better activity limitations FFI subscores. Moreover, worse pre-operative Gissane and Böhler angle were significantly associated with a worse total FAOS score and subscores. Minimally invasive reduction and percutaneous K-wires fixation provided satisfactory PROMs. Despite these results, prospective randomized studies are required to confirm the validity and reliability of PROMs in evaluating different treatments.

Patients Satisfied with Care Report Better Quality of Life and Self-Rated Health—Cross-Sectional Findings Based on Hospital Quality Data

Satisfaction with care is an important indicator of health care quality. However, if this process measure is associated with patients' outcomes in real-world data is largely unknown. We, therefore, aimed to evaluate if satisfaction with physician- and nurse-related care is associated with quality of life and self-rated health among inpatients at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany. We used standard hospital quality survey data of 4925 patients treated at various departments. We used multiple linear regressions to examine an association between satisfaction with staff-related care and quality of life as well as self-rated health, adjusted for age, gender, mother tongue, and treating ward. Patients rated their satisfaction with physician- and nurse-related care from 0 "not at all" to 9 "very much". The outcomes regarding quality of life and self-rated health were evaluated on five-point Likert scales ranking from 1 "bad" to 5 "excellent". We found that satisfaction with physician-related care was positively associated with quality of life (ß = 0.16; p < 0.001) as well as with self-rated health (ß = 0.16; p < 0.001). Similar findings were observed for satisfaction with nurse-related care and the two outcomes (ß = 0.13; p < 0.001 and ß = 0.14; p < 0.001, respectively). We show that patients who are more satisfied with staff-related care report better quality of life and self-rated health than patients less satisfied with care. Thus, patient satisfaction with care, is not only a process measure indicating the quality of care but is also positively associated with patient-reported outcomes.

Risk factors for hospital mortality in intensive care unit survivors: a retrospective cohort study.

Deaths can occur after a patient has survived treatment for a serious illness in an intensive care unit (ICU). Mortality rates after leaving the ICU can be considered indicators of health care quality. This study aims to describe risk factors and mortality of surviving patients discharged from an ICU in a university hospital. Retrospective cohort study carried out from January 2017 to December 2018. Data on age, sex, length of hospital stay, diagnosis on admission to the ICU, hospital discharge outcome, presence of infection, and Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) III prognostic score were collected. Infected patients were considered as those being treated for an infection on discharge from the ICU. Patients were divided into survivors and non-survivors on leaving the hospital. The association between the studied variables was performed using the logistic regression model. A total of 1,025 patients who survived hospitalization in the ICU were analyzed, of which 212 (20.7%) died after leaving the ICU. When separating the groups of survivors and non-survivors according to hospital outcome, the median age was higher among non-survivors. Longer hospital stays and higher SAPS III values were observed among non-survivors. In the logistic regression, the variables age, length of hospital stay, SAPS III, presence of infection, and readmission to the ICU were associated with hospital mortality. Infection on ICU discharge, ICU readmission, age, length of hospital stay, and SAPS III increased risk of death in ICU survivors.

Closure of pressure injury and mortality in internal medicine wards.

The prevalence of pressure injury (PI) in hospitalized patients ranges from 5 to 15%, and is significantly greater in critical care and palliative care units. Prevalence of PI is considered an indicator of health care quality and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The study aims to determine the features of PI and its association with mortality among hospitalized patients in the inpatient service of a university hospital. The present study comprised 89 patients hospitalized on the internal medicine inpatient service who had PI at the time of hospitalization and or who developed PI during hospitalization. Patients were categorized based on the state of PI closure (complete/incomplete). Mortality rates for 1month, 3months, 6months, and 1year were computed. The median age was 74. (IQR: 62-82). Forty-eight patients were female, and 15.7% of hospitalized patients had PI. A third of patients died during their index hospitalization. Patients with completely closed PI had decreased one-month, three-month, six-month, and one-year mortality rates. Complete closure of PI influenced all four mortality rates independently of other parameters, as determined by Cox regression analysis of the factors impacting mortality. As life expectancy rises, the frequency of PI increases, resulting in a rise in health care expenses. To reduce these expenses, prevention, early identification, and treatment of PI are essential. The primary finding of the study is that complete closure of PI in hospitalized patients reduces the risk of death.

Impact of asthma on heart rate variability in children and adolescents: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Asthma is associated with abnormal autonomic function, and heart rate variability is considered a simple, accurate, and noninvasive tool for monitoring the autonomic system. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of asthma on heart rate variability in children and adolescents. This systematic review of observational studies and clinical trials evaluated heart rate variability in children and adolescents with asthma compared to healthy controls. The data were extracted independently by two reviewers. The quality of the selected articles was assessed using Agency for Health Care Research and Quality indicators. Random effects meta-analysis was performed for each outcome, with the effect size reported as standardized mean difference. Fifteen studies were included, of which five were classified as having high methodological quality. In the meta-analysis, long-term recording of the standard deviation of all normal-to-normal sinus R-R intervals differed significantly between groups (standardized mean difference [SMD] = -0.46 [95% confidence interval {CI}: -0.79 to -0.14], p < 0.005, I2 = 0%). Moreover, R-R intervals (long-term) were significantly shorter in asthmatic children than controls (SMD = -0.47 [95% CI: -0.68 to -0.25], p < 0.0001, I2 = 0). There were no significant differences between adjacent normal R-R intervals that exceed 50 ms (long-term) and the root mean square of successive differences between normal sinus R-R intervals (short-term). Regarding frequency-domain variables, long-term low frequency measurements differed significantly between groups (SMD = -0.34 [95% CI: -0.58 to -0.10], p < 0.005, I2 = 15%). There were no differences in high frequency measurements or in the ratio between low/high frequency powers (short- or long-term) between groups. The results confirm the impact of asthma on heart rate variability in children and adolescents, indicating lower heart rate variability and sympathetic modulation.

Process over outcome quality in paediatrics? An analysis of outpatient healthcare quality indicators for seven common diseases

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine the scope, quality dimensions and treatment aspects covered by existing quality indicators (QIs) for the somatic diseases bronchial asthma, atopic eczema, otitis...

An Indicator of Health Care Quality in Home Health Patients with Chronic Diseases: Satisfaction with Nursing Care

An Indicator of Health Care Quality in Home Health Patients with Chronic Diseases: Satisfaction with Nursing Care