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CareTrack Australia: assessing the appropriateness of adult healthcare: protocol for a retrospective medical record review.

ABSTRACT: Introduction In recent years in keeping with international best practice, clinical guidelines for common conditions have been developed, endorsed and disseminated by peak national and professional bodies. Yet evidence suggests that there remain considerable gaps between the care that is regarded as appropriate by such guidelines and the care received by patients. With an ageing population and increasing treatment options and expectations, healthcare is likely to become unaffordable unless more appropriate care is provided. This paper describes a study protocol that seeks to determine the percentage of healthcare encounters in which patients receive appropriate care for 22 common clinical conditions and the reasons why variations exist from the perspectives of both patients and providers. Methods/design A random stratified sample of at least 1000 eligible participants will be recruited from a representative cross section of the adult Australian population. Participants' medical records from the years 2009 and 2010 will be audited to assess the appropriateness of the care received for 22 common clinical conditions by determining the percentage of healthcare encounters at which the care provided was concordant with a set of 522 indicators of care, developed for these conditions by a panel of 43 disease experts. The knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of participants and healthcare providers will be examined through interviews and questionnaires to understand the factors influencing variations in care. Ethics and dissemination Primary ethics approvals were sought and obtained from the Hunter New England Local Health Network. The authors will submit the results of the study to a relevant journal as well as undertaking oral presentations to researchers, clinicians and policymakers.

SUBMITTER: Hunt TD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3263440 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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CareTrack Australia: assessing the appropriateness of adult healthcare: protocol for a retrospective medical record review.

Hunt Tamara D TD Ramanathan Shanthi A SA Hannaford Natalie A NA Hibbert Peter D PD Braithwaite Jeffrey J Coiera Enrico E Day Richard O RO Westbrook Johanna I JI Runciman William B WB

BMJ open 20120118

Introduction In recent years in keeping with international best practice, clinical guidelines for common conditions have been developed, endorsed and disseminated by peak national and professional bodies. Yet evidence suggests that there remain considerable gaps between the care that is regarded as appropriate by such guidelines and the care received by patients. With an ageing population and increasing treatment options and expectations, healthcare is likely to become unaffordable unless more a ...[more]

PMID: 22262806

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Project description:IntroductionThe quality of healthcare in childhood and adolescence is of key importance, in order to foster a healthy development and to avoid chronic health problems. Yet, data for Germany regarding the quality of healthcare for this patient group are lacking. The QualiPäd research project aims to estimate the quality of outpatient healthcare for children and adolescents in Germany, focusing on common psychiatric and physical disorders.Methods and analysisQuality indicators for seven common physical and mental childhood and adolescent clinical conditions (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, asthma, atopic dermatitis, depression, otitis media, conduct disorder/oppositional defiant disorder, tonsillitis) will be developed and ratified by experts, using the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method.Initially, 1400 medical records of children and adolescents with one of the aforementioned clinical conditions will then be randomly drawn from 40 outpatient practices in the German federal state of Hessen. The records will then be assessed regarding their adherence to the respective quality indicators. Based on this, the percentage of appropriate and inappropriate (eg, wasteful) healthcare of all clinical conditions (primary endpoint) will be estimated. Additionally, possible factors influencing the quality of care (eg, patient characteristics, type of condition, type of practice) will be identified using generalised estimation equation models.Ethics and disseminationThis study will show for which of the studied clinical conditions and/or patients improvement of quality of care is necessary within the German health system. Also, the quality indicators designed for the study can afterwards be implemented in regular care and thus enable regular reporting of the outpatient care of this target group. The authors plan to disseminate their findings through international, peer-reviewed scientific publications, and through presentations at national and international paediatric and child psychiatric conferences.Trial registration numberDRKS00022408.

Dataset Information

CareTrack Australia: assessing the appropriateness of adult healthcare: protocol for a retrospective medical record review.

Publications

CareTrack Australia: assessing the appropriateness of adult healthcare: protocol for a retrospective medical record review.

Similar Datasets

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