Medical Practice Variations Research Articles

Variability of indication criteria in knee and hip replacement: an observational study

BackgroundTotal knee (TKR) and hip (THR) replacement (arthroplasty) are effective surgical procedures that relieve pain, improve patients' quality of life and increase functional capacity. Studies on variations in medical practice usually place the indications for performing these procedures to be highly variable, because surgeons appear to follow different criteria when recommending surgery in patients with different severity levels. We therefore proposed a study to evaluate inter-hospital variability in arthroplasty indication.MethodsThe pre-surgical condition of 1603 patients included was compared by their personal characteristics, clinical situation and self-perceived health status. Patients were asked to complete two health-related quality of life questionnaires: the generic SF-12 (Short Form) and the specific WOMAC (Western Ontario and Mcmaster Universities) scale. The type of patient undergoing primary arthroplasty was similar in the 15 different hospitals evaluated.The variability in baseline WOMAC score between hospitals in THR and TKR indication was described by range, mean and standard deviation (SD), mean and standard deviation weighted by the number of procedures at each hospital, high/low ratio or extremal quotient (EQ5-95), variation coefficient (CV5-95) and weighted variation coefficient (WCV5-95) for 5-95 percentile range. The variability in subjective and objective signs was evaluated using median, range and WCV5-95. The appropriateness of the procedures performed was calculated using a specific threshold proposed by Quintana et al for assessing pain and functional capacity.ResultsThe variability expressed as WCV5-95 was very low, between 0.05 and 0.11 for all three dimensions on WOMAC scale for both types of procedure in all participating hospitals. The variability in the physical and mental SF-12 components was very low for both types of procedure (0.08 and 0.07 for hip and 0.03 and 0.07 for knee surgery patients). However, a moderate-high variability was detected in subjective-objective signs. Among all the surgeries performed, approximately a quarter of them could be considered to be inappropriate.ConclusionsA greater inter-hospital variability was observed for objective than for subjective signs for both procedures, suggesting that the differences in clinical criteria followed by surgeons when indicating arthroplasty are the main responsible factors for the variation in surgery rates.

Indicadores de segurança do paciente para hospitais de pacientes agudos: revisão sistemática

A systematic review was conducted to identify the strategies used in the development of patient safety indicators for acute care hospitals. The data sources were MEDLINE, EMBASE, websites, and reference lists from articles and documents. Fourteen projects on the development of indicators were included. The review showed the use of different terms with varying definitions of quality and patient safety. The literature review and participation by specialists and other stakeholders characterized the projects. Of the 285 identified indicators, 125 were classified in more than one quality dimension. The most frequent combination was safety and effectiveness. Most were medication indicators, and more than half were outcome indicators. In developing patient safety indicators, the results show the importance of considering variations in culture and medical practice, the availability of information systems, and the capacity of hospitals and health systems to implement effective monitoring systems.

Is the “practice style” hypothesis relevant for general practitioners? An analysis of antibiotics prescription for acute rhinopharyngitis

Much research in France or abroad has highlighted the medical practice variation (MPV) phenomenon. There is no consensus on the origin of MPV between preference-centered approaches versus opportunities and constraints approaches. This study's main purpose is to assess the relevance of hypotheses which assume that physicians adopt a uniform practice style for their patients for each similar clinical decision in a context of medical decision with low uncertainty and professional practice with weak regulation. Multilevel models are evaluated: first to measure variability of antibiotics prescription by French general practitioners (GPs) for acute rhinopharyngitis regarding clinical guidelines, and to test its significance in order to determine to what extent prescription differences are due to between or within GPs discrepancies; second, to prioritize its determinants, especially those relating to a GP or his/her practice setting environment, while controlling visit or patient confounders. The study was based on 2001 activity data, along with an ad hoc questionnaire, of a sample of 778 GP taken from a panel of 1006 computerized French GPs. We observed that a large part of the total variation was due to intra-physician variability (70%). It is patient characteristics that largely explain the prescription, even if GP or practice setting characteristics (location, level of activity, network participation, continuing medical education) and environmental factors (visit from pharmaceutical sales representatives) also exert considerable influence. This suggests that MPV are partly caused by differences in the type of dissemination of medical information and this may help policy makers to identify and develop facilitators for promoting better use of antibiotics in France and, more generally, for influencing GP practices when it is of interest.

Study of the Variations in the Use of Hospital Services, Based on the Case Mix, in 2008 in Romania

The healthcare system copes with economic challenges worldwide, so the healthcare reform is a topic more important than ever for social policies. What do we get for our money? Is a question that raises more and more. It has been shown that more healthcare services does not necessarily mean a better health. Many countries focus of medical practice variations or health disparities. The collection of case mix data starting with 2003 in Romania made possible several studies concerning practice variations in Romania. The present article shows how these data can be used to provide accurate comparisons in geographic profile concerning the volume of services, territorial disparities and to hypothesize about the possible causes of practice variations. Key words: Hospitals, medical practice variations, territorial disparities, case mix

Regional Variation in Practice and Healthcare Spending

Many studies have documented substantial regional variation in medical practice in the U.S. In two new studies, researchers address this issue in different ways. Dartmouth researchers grouped 306 U.S. regions into five quintiles of “intensity of practice,” according to a previously developed measure of Medicare spending. Then, they identified Medicare beneficiaries who changed their …

Disparités géographiques d’évolution d’incidence des cancers de la thyroïde par taille entre 1983 et 2000 en France

Background The aim of this investigation was to study geographic time trends of thyroid cancer incidence according to tumor size in France, 1983 to 2000. Methods Incidence data were provided from six French registries over the period 1983–2000 covering seven administrative districts. Five tumor size groups were distinguished: < 10 mm, 10–20 mm, 20–40 mm, > 40 mm and unknown size. Papillary cancers diagnosed in women were analyzed according to tumor size in each geographic area. World age standardized rates were calculated and annual percent change rates were estimated for each tumor size group in each geographic area. Loglinear Poisson regression models were used to study geographic discrepancies in time trends incidences. Results The six French registries included 2222 papillary thyroid cancers in women between 1983 et 2000. Thyroid cancer incidence was increasing in the six geographic areas. Geographical variations in time trends incidence between registries reflected geographical variations in time trends incidence of small sized tumors (less than 10 mm). Conclusion Wide geographic variations in thyroid cancer incidence were noticed for small size tumors, which may be correlated with geographic variations in medical practices.

Do guidelines create uniformity in medical practice?

This article aimed to test the general hypothesis that guidelines create uniformity, or reduce variation, in medical practice. Medical practice variation has policy interest and is one of the reasons for developing guidelines. The development and implementation of guidelines was considered in the broader context of processes of rationalization. We focused on the influence of voluntary guidelines developed by the professional organization for family physicians in the Netherlands on variation in drug prescription. Data were used from the First and Second Dutch National Survey of General Practice (DNSGP1 and DNSGP2), collected in 1987 and 2001 respectively. DNSGP1 consisted of 103 practices and 161 GPs serving 335.000 patients. DNSGP2 consisted of 104 practices and 195 GPs serving 390.000 patients. Two groups of diagnoses were created, one containing all diagnoses for which guidelines were introduced and one containing all other diagnoses. For both groups a measure of concentration, Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), was used to represent variation. This measure of concentration was compared between both groups using multilevel analysis. Results showed that although there was an overall increase in variation (a significantly lower HHI) in prescription, the increase was less in the cases of diagnoses for which guidelines were introduced. Guidelines, primarily, had an effect on variations in single-handed practices. The overall conclusion is that the introduction of guidelines, although it probably tempered the increase in variation, did not reduce variation.

Medical practice variation

What means “medical practice variations”? What causes them and why are they important? To what are they related? Who is responsible? Could they be measured and limited? Should Romania start a practice variations assessment process? Why is it necessary and what is needed to have for it? The article answers to a part of these questions, raising many others. Keywords: evidence-based medicine, medical practice variations.

Diagnostic Certainty as a Source of Medical Practice Variation in Coronary Heart Disease: Results from a Cross-National Experiment of Clinical Decision Making

The authors examined physician diagnostic certainty as one reason for cross-national medical practice variation. Data are from a factorial experiment conducted in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, estimating 384 generalist physicians' diagnostic and treatment decisions for videotaped vignettes of actor patients depicting a presentation consistent with coronary heart disease (CHD). Despite identical vignette presentations, the authors observed significant differences across health care systems, with US physicians being the most certain and German physicians the least certain (P < 0.0001). Physicians were least certain of a CHD diagnoses when patients were younger and female (P < 0.0086), and there was additional variation by health care system (as represented by country) depending on patient age (P < 0.0100) and race (P < 0.0021). Certainty was positively correlated with several clinical actions, including test ordering, prescriptions, referrals to specialists, and time to follow-up.

Judith D. de Jong: “Explaining medical practice variation–Social organization and institutional mechanisms,” Utrecht, 2007

Judith D. de Jong: “Explaining medical practice variation–Social organization and institutional mechanisms,” Utrecht, 2007

Diagnosing and treating premenstrual syndrome in five western nations

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and its derivative Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) are controversial medical diagnoses. On one hand they are ubiquitous in English-language cultures; on the other they are for many emblematic of unnecessary medicalization of natural physiological processes. In this paper, we use data produced by IMS, a health care information and research firm, to analyze office-based medical practice related to PMS/PMDD in five countries. We come to several conclusions: 1. Relatively few doctors in any country diagnose women as suffering from PMS/PMDD, despite significant national variations in frequency of diagnosis; 2. Women diagnosed with this condition are usually prescribed a medication no matter what kind of specialist they see; and 3. In North America and the UK, practitioners generally follow USA practice guidelines which favour use of anti-depressive drugs like SSRIs but this is not the case in France and Germany which exhibit unique prescription patterns. In France hormonal treatment and analgesics dominate; in Germany the plant extract Vitex agnus-castus, considered an alternative therapy in much of the English-speaking world, is most common. We go on to discuss the relevance of these conclusions to discussions of variations in medical practices, to the existing PMS literature that claims high rates of prevalence for this condition, and to recent studies of “demedicalization” in certain domains.

A Continuum of Competency Assessment: The Potential for Reciprocal Use of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Toolbox and the Components of the American Board of Pediatrics Maintenance-of-Certification Program

Reduction of unexplained variation in medical practice and health outcomes is of paramount importance, which indicates a need for a continuum of medical learning that begins in medical school and continues until the end of a professional career. That, in turn, indicates need for continuing assessment of professional competence. The American Board of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education are working together to develop a common approach to documenting acquisition of competence during residency and maintenance of competence thereafter. A common approach will eliminate redundancy and make it possible to follow the evolution of professional competence over time.

Stroke Unit Care Is Beneficial Both for the Patient and for the Health Service and Should Be Widely Implemented

See related article, pages 18–23. Stroke unit (SU) care is the only treatment option for acute stroke with proven reduction of death.1 It is also the only intervention that has shown a reduction in long-term dependency, and the majority of stroke patients benefit from this intervention.1 Hence, SU care is by far the most important treatment for stroke patients and the only treatment of acute stroke that has a major impact on the burden of stroke.1–3 It is important to recognize that the organization of stroke services per se plays a key role in improving the overall outcome after a stroke. Despite impressive results, the implementation of SU care is remarkably slow in many countries. A hospital survey from the United States showed that SU care was established at only 38% of the hospitals.4 In a registry of the Canadian Stroke Network, only 31% of stroke patients received care in an SU.5 Similar problems in translating knowledge into practice are also present in many other regions and countries worldwide.6,7 It is mainly the Scandinavian countries that have implemented SUs on a large scale,8 especially Sweden, where >80% of all patients with acute stroke are offered SU care. The positive effects of SU care not only are found in randomized trials but also persist when SUs are implemented in routine clinical practice.9 Hence, the consequences of the lack of a wide implementation of SUs are probably that many stroke patients will die unnecessarily or will become dependent and require long-term institutional …

Continental variations in IgA nephropathy among Asians

Local variations in patient demographics and medical practice can contribute to differences in renal outcomes in patients with IgA nephropathy. We report the experiences of two groups of Asians with IgA nephropathy across continents. We retrospectively examined two cohorts of Asian patients with IgA nephropathy from The King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital registry, Thailand (1994 - 2005), and The Metropolitan Toronto Glomerulonephritis registry, Canada (1975 - 2006), and compared their baseline characteristics. Slope of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in each group was approximated using separate repeated measures regression models for each country. There were 152 Canadian and 76 Thai patients. At the time of first presentation, Thai patients were more likely to be female (63.2 vs. 44.1%, p = 0.01), have less baseline proteinuria (1.2 vs. 1.7 g/d, p = 0.08) and more likely to receive angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-I) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) (64.0 vs. 15.2%, p < 0.01), or prednisone (41.3 vs. 4.6%, p < 0.01). The annual change in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) for the Thai and Canadian groups were -0.82 ml/min/1.73 m2/year and -3.35 ml/min/1.73 m2/year, respectively, after adjustment for age, sex, mean arterial pressure (MAP), proteinuria, body mass index, Haas histological grade, chronicity scores and baseline medications. Although disease severity was similar among IgA nephropathy patients in Canada and Thailand, more Thai patients were on ACE-I/ARB or prednisone therapy at baseline. Further prospective research is needed to explore international differences in demographic and environmental factors, health resources, and disease management to determine how they may impact long-term outcomes in Asians with IgA nephropathy.

Medical practice variation

Medical practice variation

How are patient characteristics relevant for physicians' clinical decision making in diabetes? An analysis of qualitative results from a cross-national factorial experiment

Variations in medical practice have been widely documented and are a linchpin in explanations of health disparities. Evidence shows that clinical decision making varies according to patient, provider and health system characteristics. However, less is known about the processes underlying these aggregate associations and how physicians interpret various patient attributes. Verbal protocol analysis (otherwise known as ‘think-aloud’) techniques were used to analyze open-ended data from 244 physicians to examine which patient characteristics physicians identify as relevant for their decision making. Data are from a vignette-based factorial experiment measuring the effects of: (a) patient attributes (age, gender, race and socioeconomic status); (b) physician characteristics (gender and years of clinical experience); and (c) features of the healthcare system in two countries (USA, United Kingdom) on clinical decision making for diabetes. We find that physicians used patients' demographic characteristics only as a starting point in their assessments, and proceeded to make detailed assessments about cognitive ability, motivation, social support and other factors they consider predictive of adherence with medical recommendations and therefore relevant to treatment decisions. These non-medical characteristics of patients were mentioned with much greater consistency than traditional biophysiologic markers of risk such as race, gender, and age. Types of explanations identified varied somewhat according to patient characteristics and to the country in which the interview took place. Results show that basic demographic characteristics are inadequate to the task of capturing information physicians draw from doctor–patient encounters, and that in order to fully understand differential clinical decision making there is a need to move beyond documentation of aggregate associations and further explore the mental and social processes at work.

Economic analysis of medical practice variation between 1991 and 2000: The impact of patient outcomes research teams (PORTs)

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of the multi-hundred million dollar investment by the federal government in the developing Patient Outcomes Research Teams (PORTs) in over a dozen major academic medical centers in the United States throughout the 1990s. The objective of the PORTs was to reduce unnecessary clinical variation in medical treatment. Using an economic derivation of welfare loss attributable to medical practice variation and hospital admission claims data for 2 million elderly patients generalizable to the nation, we estimate the change in welfare between 1991 and 2000, the period within which the PORTs were designed and executed and their results disseminated. Our results show inpatient admission types targeted by the PORTs did have less welfare loss relative to their total expenditure by 2000, but that there was not a net decrease in the welfare loss for all hospital admissions affected by the PORT. We conclude that PORTs may have had favorable effects on welfare, most likely by reducing variation in clinical care, but that causality cannot be proved, and the effects were not equal across all conditions targeted by PORTs. This research provides a methodological template that may be used to evaluate the impact of patient safety research on welfare loss and on variation in medical treatment in both hospital and ambulatory settings.

Do We Know Enough to Mandate Donor Evaluation Testing?

We appreciate Dr. Davis’ comments on the current practices for the evaluation of living kidney donors in this country, as noted in her editorial accompanying our published survey on the subject (1). The call for funding studies to assess long-term kidney donor outcomes is particularly important, because we suspect that much of the variation in medical evaluation practices in this country results from the lack of good data defining the risks for a specific donor. Dr. Davis renews the call for a nationally standardized living donation evaluation and selection protocol. However, a cautionary note is important. National rules mandating an exacting and expensive predonation medical evaluation, in the absence of data validating these tests, are fraught with potential problems. The first draft of the UNOS proposal out for public comment included such suggestions as checking an HbA1c in potential donors at increased risk for diabetes and performing a chest CT for those with a history of smoking. Neither of these recommendations will likely stand the public comment process, since they are not standard of care procedures to detect the conditions of interest (diabetes and lung cancer). For now, national rules for donor evaluation should be limited to tests which are unequivocally accepted for the detection of disease and future risk, such as age-appropriate cancer screening and renal function evaluation. The presence of interprogram variability in the medical evaluation of the kidney donor sometimes reflects absence of data, not absence of good medical practice. We should continue to lobby for funding of studies to answer outstanding questions in the evaluation of live donors, before we mandate tests based on opinion. Martha Pavlakisa Douglas Hantob and Didier Mandelbrota aDepartment of Medicine bDepartment of Surgery Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center 110 Francis Street, 7th floor, Boston, MA

The Ethical Attitude of Emergency Physicians Toward Resuscitation in Korea

This study was conducted to assess the various ethical attitudes of emergency specialists in Korea toward resuscitation. A questionnaire investigating the following key topics concerning the ethics of resuscitation was sent to emergency specialists in Korea: when not to attempt resuscitation, when to stop resuscitation, withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, diagnosis of death by non-physicians, permission for family members to stay with the patient during resuscitation, and teaching with the body of the recently deceased patient. We found broad variation in medical practice at patient death and in the ethical considerations held and followed by emergency physicians (EPs) during resuscitation in Korea. Initiating and concluding resuscitation attempts were practiced according to ethical and cultural norms, as well as medical conditions. Guidelines for resuscitation ethics that are based on the Korean medico-legal background need to be developed. Education of EPs to solve the ethical dilemma in resuscitation is needed.

Consensus Statement for Standard of Care in Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Spinal muscular atrophy is a neurodegenerative disease that requires multidisciplinary medical care. Recent progress in the understanding of molecular pathogenesis of spinal muscular atrophy and advances in medical technology have not been matched by similar developments in the care for spinal muscular atrophy patients. Variations in medical practice coupled with differences in family resources and values have resulted in variable clinical outcomes that are likely to compromise valid measure of treatment effects during clinical trials. The International Standard of Care Committee for Spinal Muscular Atrophy was formed in 2005, with a goal of establishing practice guidelines for clinical care of these patients. The 12 core committee members worked with more than 60 spinal muscular atrophy experts in the field through conference calls, e-mail communications, a Delphi survey, and 2 in-person meetings to achieve consensus on 5 care areas: diagnostic/new interventions, pulmonary, gastrointestinal/nutrition, orthopedics/rehabilitation, and palliative care. Consensus was achieved on several topics related to common medical problems in spinal muscular atrophy, diagnostic strategies, recommendations for assessment and monitoring, and therapeutic interventions in each care area. A consensus statement was drafted to address the 5 care areas according to 3 functional levels of the patients: nonsitter, sitter, and walker. The committee also identified several medical practices lacking consensus and warranting further investigation. It is the authors' intention that this document be used as a guideline, not as a practice standard for their care. A practice standard for spinal muscular atrophy is urgently needed to help with the multidisciplinary care of these patients.