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At least 775 records · Page 43Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

When there is no benchmark: designing a primary care-based chronic pain management program from the scientific basis up.

Managed care has been accused of ignoring the patient with pain. The challenge for a health maintenance organization (HMO) was not just how to deliver state-of-the-art care, but how to deliver it to the 40,000 members who experience chronic pain at a reasonable cost and with enduring outcomes. This article describes how one managed care organization set about improving the care of patients with chronic pain. The article includes the design process, the model implemented, and some suggestions for transfer of this technology to others who might want to explore developing a similar model.

Benchmarking↗
PubMed1998

Benchmarking the perioperative process: II. Introducing anesthesia clinical pathways to improve processes and outcomes and to reduce nursing labor intensity in ambulatory orthopedic surgery.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: (1) To introduce anesthesia clinical pathways as a management tool to improve the quality of care; (2) to use the Procedural Times Glossary published by the Association of Anesthesia Clinical Directors (AACD) as a template for data collection and analysis; and (3) to determine the effects of anesthesia clinical pathways on surgical processes, outcomes, and costs in common ambulatory orthopedic surgery. DESIGN: Hospital database and patient chart review of consecutive patients undergoing anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) during academic years (AY) 1995-1996 and 1996-1997. Patient data from AY 1995-1996, during which no intraoperative anesthesia clinical pathways existed, served as historical controls. Data from AY 1996-1997, during which intraoperative anesthesia clinical pathways were used, served as the treatment group. Regional anesthesia options were routinely offered to patients in the clinical pathway. SETTING: Ambulatory surgery center in a teaching hospital. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The records of 503 ASA physical status I and II patients were reviewed. 1996-1997 patients underwent clinical pathway anesthesia care in which the intraoperative and postoperative anesthesia process was standardized with respect to symptom management, drugs, and equipment used. 1995-1996 patients did not have a standardized intraoperative and postoperative anesthetic course with respect to the management of common symptoms or to specific drugs and supplies used. Intervals described in the AACD Procedural Times Glossary, anesthesia drug and supply costs, and patient outcome variables (postoperative nursing interventions required and unexpected admissions), as influenced by the use of the anesthesia clinical pathway, were measured. Clinical pathway anesthesia care of ACLR in 1996-1997, which actively incorporated regional anesthesia options, reduced pharmacy and materials cost variability; slightly increased turnover time; improved intraoperative anesthesia and surgical efficiency, recovery times, and unexpected admission rates; and decreased the number of required nursing interventions for common postoperative symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical pathway patient management systems in anesthesia care are likely to produce useful outcome data of current practice patterns when compared with historical controls. This management tool may be useful in simultaneously containing costs and improving process efficiency and patient outcomes.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Benchmarking the perioperative process: III. Effects of regional anesthesia clinical pathway techniques on process efficiency and recovery profiles in ambulatory orthopedic surgery.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: (1) To incorporate regional anesthesia options for common outpatient orthopedic surgery into clinical pathways; (2) to use the clinical pathway format and the Procedural Times Glossary published by the Association of Anesthesia Clinical Directors (AACD) as management tools to measure postoperative same-day surgery processes and discharge outcomes; and (3) to determine the effects of general, regional, and combined general-regional anesthesia on these processes and outcomes. DESIGN: Hospital database and patient chart review of consecutive patients undergoing anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) during academic years (AY) 1995-1996 and 1996-1997. Patient data from AY 1995-1996, during which no intraoperative anesthesia clinical pathway existed, served as historical controls. Data from AY 1996-1997, during which intraoperative anesthesia clinical pathways were used, served as the treatment group. SETTING: Ambulatory surgery center in a teaching hospital. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The records of 503 ASA physical status I and II patients were reviewed. 1996-1997 patients selected general anesthesia (+/- femoral nerve block) or epidural anesthesia, after which the remainder of the perioperative anesthesia process was standardized with respect to the drugs and equipment used. 1995-1996 patients did not necessarily have a choice in anesthesia technique and did not have a standardized perioperative anesthetic course with respect to specific drugs and supplies. Intervals described in the AACD Procedural Times Glossary, anesthesia drug and supply costs, and patient outcome variables (postoperative nursing interventions required and unexpected admissions), as influenced by anesthesia technique used, were measured. Combined general-regional anesthesia care for ACLR in 1996-1997, when compared with general anesthesia alone, led to increased pharmacy and materials costs and increased turnover time. However, patients with the combined technique showed improved recovery profiles and lower unexpected admission rates, and they required fewer nursing interventions for common postoperative symptoms. Patients receiving epidural anesthesia showed discharge outcomes similar to those patients receiving general anesthesia with femoral nerve block. Postanesthesia care unit bypass (fast-tracking) was more likely in clinical pathway regional anesthesia patients, when compared with the clinical pathway general anesthesia used. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical pathway regional anesthesia care for outpatient orthopedics may have a significant role in simultaneously containing costs and improving both process efficiency and patient outcomes.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Collaborative use of informatics among hospitals to benchmark medication use processes.

BACKGROUND: In spring 1995 pharmacists representing each of the 23 member hospitals in Synernet, a hospital cooperative in Maine, decided to collaborate in developing a multihospital medication use evaluation (MUE) program. The committee set up task forces for adverse drug reaction reporting and prevention, MUE plans, and medication error reporting and prevention, for exploration of opportunities to eliminate duplication of efforts, compare performance, and share best practices. PLANNING THE PROGRAM: The members retained a consulting firm to manage the SynRx medication use program from conceptualization through implementation. Modules--on individual drug dosing, switching from intravenous to oral administration, pharmacists' clinical recommendations, and surgical antibiotic prophylaxis--were designed so that participants could adopt the entire plan as a turnkey procedure by inserting their hospital name in the appropriate blanks, modify it to more closely fit their own organizations, use portions of it for inclusion in their current plans, or not use it at all. The goal was to build in maximum flexibility to accommodate the variations in the participating hospital pharmacies and their respective hospitals. RESULTS: Early program benefits include improvements in medication event reporting, documentation of the measured aspects of medication use, delivery of care processes, and administrative efficiency. LESSONS LEARNED AND CONCLUSIONS: The participants, consultants, and programmers involved in the SynRx program learned firsthand the complexity and magnitude of hospital medication use processes. Yet it is possible to overcome the wide variability in systems among hospitals to create standards that allow for more meaningful comparisons of medication use.

Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Benchmarking for hospital evacuation: a critical data collection tool.

In events such as earthquakes or terrorist attacks, hospitals may be victims of disasters. They may need to transfer patients to outside facilities rather than continue to provide on-site care. Following the Northridge earthquake, eight hospitals in the damaged area were the foci of a United States National Science Foundation study that examined the status of the hospitals' pre-event planning, post-event evacuation decision-making, and internal and external evacuation processes. Building on this experience, this paper offers a standardized data collection tool, which will enable researchers to record hospital evacuation information in a systematic manner so that comparable data can be accumulated, evacuation research methods can be improved, and consensus on methods can be reached. The study's principal subjects include: (1) hospital demographics; (2) description of existing disaster response plans; (3) an event's impacts on hospital operations; (4) decision-making and incident command; (5) movement of patients within the facility; (6) movement of patients to off-site institutions; and (7) hospital recovery.

Benchmarking↗
PubMed1999

A comparison of methods of benchmark-dose estimation for continuous response data.

Methods of quantitative risk assessment for toxic responses that are measured on a continuous scale are not well established. Although risk-assessment procedures that attempt to utilize the quantitative information in such data have been proposed, there is no general agreement that these procedures are appreciably more efficient than common quantal dose-response procedures that operate on dichotomized continuous data. This paper points out an equivalence between the dose-response models of the nonquantal approach of Kodell and West and a quantal probit procedure, and provides results from a Monte Carlo simulation study to compare coverage probabilities of statistical lower confidence limits on dose corresponding to specified additional risk based on applying the two procedures to continuous data from a dose-response experiment. The nonquantal approach is shown to be superior, in terms of both statistical validity and statistical efficiency.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Physician benchmarking: measuring variation in practice behavior in treatment of otitis media.

The study uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to analyze physician practice behavior and develops measures of physician practice efficiency as a basis for improving productivity and reducing costs in otitis media treatment. Other objectives include determining geographic variations in practice patterns for otitis media, and the impact of inefficient practice patterns on the cost of treatment of otitis media. Only 46 (28.8%) of the 160 physicians were classified as efficient. Average total cost of an episode by efficient providers was $357.03 and $492.06 for inefficient providers. By restricting particular inputs and outputs, and directing all physicians to treat otitis media through a balanced primary care model, physicians would be able to provide the same quality care at an average savings of 23.7% per efficient and 4.4% per inefficient provider.

Benchmarking↗
PubMed2003

The power of collaboration: using internet-based tools to facilitate networking and benchmarking within a consortium of academic health centers.

The University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) represents a strategic alliance of 169 academic health centers and associated institutions engaged in knowledge sharing and idea-generation. The use of the Internet as a tool in the delivery of UHC's products and services has increased dramatically over the past year and will continue to increase during the foreseeable future. This paper examines the current state of UHC-member institution driven tools and services that utilize the Web as a fundamental component in their delivery. The evolution of knowledge management at UHC, its management information and reporting tools, and expansion of e-commerce provide real world examples of Internet use in health care delivery and management. Health care workers are using these Web-based tools to help manage rising costs and optimize patient outcomes. Policy, technical, and organizational issues must be resolved to facilitate rapid adoption of Internet applications.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMed2003

Regional variation in medical classification agreement: benchmarking the coding gap.

The growing use of classification and coding of patient data in medical information systems has resulted in increased dependence on the accuracy of coding practices. Information maintained on systems must be trusted by both providers and managers in order to serve as a viable tool for the delivery of healthcare in an evidence-based environment. A national survey of health information managers was employed here to assess observed levels of coder agreement with physician code selections used in classifying patient data. Findings from this survey suggest that, on a national level, the quality of coded data may suffer as a result of disagreement or inconsistent coding within healthcare provider organizations, in an era where physicians are increasingly called upon to enter and classify patient data via computerized medical records. Nineteen percent of respondents report that coder-physician classification disagreement occurred on more than 5% of all patient encounters. In some cases disagreement occurs in 20% or more instances of code selection. This phenomenon occurred to varying degrees across regions and market areas, suggesting a confounding influence when coded data is aggregated for comparative purposes. In an evidence-based healthcare environment, coded data often serves as a representation of clinical performance. Given the increasing complexity of medical information classification systems, reliance on such data may pose a risk for both practitioners and managers without consistent agreement on coding practices and procedures.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1998

Transporting an empirically supported treatment for panic disorder to a service clinic setting: a benchmarking strategy.

This work examines the transportability of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for panic disorder to a community mental health center (CMHC) setting by comparing CMHC treatment outcome data with the results obtained in two controlled efficacy trials. Participants were 110 clients with a primary diagnosis of panic disorder with or without agoraphobia; clients were not excluded on the basis of medication use or changes, severity or frequency of panic attacks, age, or the presence of agoraphobia. Clients completed a 15-session CBT protocol. Despite differences in settings, clients, and treatment providers, the treatment outcomes for clients completing treatment in the CMHC and the efficacy studies were comparable: Of the CMHC clients who completed treatment, 87% were panic-free at the end of treatment, and clients showed significant reductions in anticipatory anxiety, agoraphobic avoidance, generalized anxiety, and symptoms of depression. The present study suggests that panic control treatment can be transported to a CMHC. Challenges facing the transportability of research-based treatment to CMHC clients, settings, and treatment providers are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Benchmarking the clinical orthodontic evidence on Medline.

The purpose of this study was to identify and quantify the availability of orthodontic literature for evidence-based clinical decision-making (ie, sound clinical studies of etiology, diagnosis, treatment, or prognosis meeting basic methodologic criteria for direct clinical use). This is a first step toward developing online decision analysis systems. A search strategy based on Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) for orthodontics was developed to examine MEDLINE using the Ovid Web Gateway search engine. Sensitive and specific methodologic search filters were then employed to identify the 4 categories of information. The results were then subdivided by year to identify trends and sorted to identify source of publications. In the period 1990 to 1998, the MEDLINE searches identified 6938 English-language articles about orthodontics. The mean number of articles (+/-SD) per year ranged from 42+/-25 for specific searches to 314+/-214 for sensitive searches. The number of articles identified by the specific or sensitive searches increased 14% to 21% annually. When subdivided by clinical category, the mean numbers of articles per year for specific and sensitive searches were respectively: etiology 19+/-15 and 91+/-37, diagnosis 11+/-5 and 80+/-35, therapy 3+/-1 and 50+/-23, and prognosis 10+/-7 and 93+/-33. Five dental journals accounted for nearly half of these publications. These results provide several key findings: (1) there is a substantial literature of clinically relevant information in orthodontics upon which to base clinical decisions; (2) the information appears to be balanced between etiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis; (3) approximately 45% of the articles reside in 5 journals, whereas the remainder reside in approximately 66 other journals, making it difficult to stay current; (4) the number of articles is increasing significantly each year; (5) to stay current, one would need to read between 1 and 6 articles per week, 52 weeks per year; (6) these trends suggest the need for computer-based clinical knowledge systems; and (7) the methods used here can be immediately employed to identify the best and most current clinical orthodontic evidence.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2003

Frequency of seborrheic keratosis biopsies in the United States: a benchmark of skin lesion care quality and cost effectiveness.

BACKGROUND: Most seborrheic keratoses may be readily clinically differentiated from skin cancer, but occasional lesions resemble atypical melanocytic neoplasms. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the frequency, cost, and intensity of procedures performed that result in the removal and histopathologic evaluation of seborrheic keratoses. METHODS: Episodes of surgical removal of lesions that were identified as seborrheic keratoses by histologic identification were determined using Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey data from 1998 to 1999. These episodes were defined by a histopathology procedure code that is associated with a diagnosis code for seborrheic keratosis. We then identified what procedure(s) generated the histopathology specimen. Biopsy and shave procedures were considered "low intensity," whereas excision and repair procedures were considered "high intensity." RESULTS: Dermatologists managed 85% of all episodes of seborrheic keratoses. Dermatologists managed 89% of seborrheic keratosis episodes using low-intensity procedures compared with 51% by other specialties. For nondermatologists, 46% of the treatment cost (9 million US dollars) to Medicare was generated from high-intensity management compared with 15% by dermatologists (6 million US dollars). CONCLUSION: There is a significant difference in the management of suspicious pigmented lesions between dermatologists and other specialists. This affects both the cost and quality of care.

Benchmarking↗
PubMed2006

[Incidence of coercive measures as an indicator of quality in psychiatric hospitals. Problems of data recording and processing, preliminary results of a benchmarking study].

OBJECTIVE: The clinical practice concerning the use of coercive measures in psychiatry should be compared. METHOD: A common documentation of physical restraint, seclusion, and medication by coercion was introduced among 10 hospitals. RESULTS: 8.4 % of cases treated within the first 6 months of 2004 were exposed to coercive measures with the highest percentage among patients with psychoorganic disorders (32.1 %). The incidence of coercive measures varied highly between different diagnostic groups and hospitals. DISCUSSION: The processing of the large multi-site data sets yields considerable technical problems. Data interpretation should consider confounding factors such as case mix and hospital structure characteristics.

Benchmarking↗