Module 13 Flashcards
What are the baseline components of the process of evaluation
baseline data
implementation of the program
evaluation of the program
implementation of new program activities on the basis of the results of the evaluation
What are the three components of the framework for examining health services in relation to the QA of healthcare services
Structure
Process
Outcomes
What are the gaps in process studies
- do not indicate the outcome
- they are based on expert opinion, which can change over time
What are common outcome measures?
Mortality, morbidity, patient satisfaction, quality of life, degree of dependence and disability
Efficacy
Does the agent or intervention work under ideal laboratory conditions?
Effectiveness
If we administer the agent in “real life, is it effective?
Efficiency
If an agent is shown to be effective, what is the cost-benefit ratio? Is it possible to achieve our goals in a less expensive/better way?
Guidelines for selecting an appropriate outcome measure
The measure must be quantifiable
Should be relatively easy to define
Should lend itself to standardization
The population served must be at risk fothe same condition for which an intervention is being evaluated
when studying etiology, we study:
a putative cause (the exposure) and the adverse health effect (s) (the dependent outcome).
When studying health services, we focus on
The health service (the independent variable/exposure) and the reduction in the adverse health effects as the anticipated outcome (the dependent variable)
What is the difference between studies of process vs outcomes
Process measures components of health care delivery, whereas outcome measures whether a patient or group benefits from the health care.
Why might a treatment be efficacious but not effective?
A treatment might be shown to be efficacious and work in a controlled setting, but in the real world the treatment may not be effective if it is too difficult to do (for example, if a drug tastes bad, is painful, or too time consuming).
What are some advantages and disadvantages of using EMRs to assess outcomes?
Advantages include using real-world populations, analyses can be completed relatively quickly, and usually they have large sample sizes. Disadvantages include that the data may not be well suited for research purposes, diagnostic coding may be inconsistent across facilities or time, there may not be information on confounding variables, and investigators may be more removed from the individuals being studied.
