Article
National assessment and evaluation based on National Guidelines
Search Medline for
Authors
Published: | July 10, 2012 |
---|
Outline
Text
Background: The aim of the national assessment and evaluation based on national guidelines (NG) is to identify differences in care between counties and hospitals regarding organizational factors, processes, clinical outcomes and costs. A further objective is to identify care not conforming to the national guidelines.
Context: The National Guidelines are comprehensive guidelines built around one major health issue, and are comprised of multiple diseases and interventions. The NG presents recommendations of interventions in ranking order.
Description of best practice: National data sources used in the assessment includes the Prescribed Drug Register, the Cause of Death Register and the Patient Register, as well as Health Care Quality Registers. Costs estimations are based on statistics from the Diagnosis Related Groups and the Costs Per Patient database, as well as the Prescribed Drug Register. The results are presented as benchmark reports, where treatment not conforming to national guidelines, or notable variations between counties or hospitals, are highlighted as areas in need of improvements. Throughout the analysis, references are made to structural indicators, to find causes of variations in results between counties and hospitals. Results will be presented from the national assessments of stroke and diabetes.
Lessons for guideline developers:Evaluation of NG serves several purposes. Facts are retained about quality of care and it is a basis for continuous improvements. Open national comparison produce elevated interest from policy makers. National assessment and evaluation based on National Guidelines will most likely improve the impact and uptake.