How do teams in quality improvement collaboratives interact?

Background: The multi-organizational collaborative is a popular model for quality improvement (QI) initiatives. It assumes organizations will share information and social support. However, there is no comprehensive documentation of the extent to which teams do interact.

The role of perceived team effectiveness in improving chronic illness care.

Background/objectives: The importance of teams for improving quality of care has received increased attention. We examine both the correlates of self-assessed or perceived team effectiveness and its consequences for actually making changes to improve care for people with chronic illness. STUDY SETTING AND METHODS: Data were obtained from 40 teams participating in the national evaluation of the Improving Chronic Illness Care Program.

An evaluation of collaborative interventions to improve chronic illness care. Framework and study design.

The author's dual-purpose evaluation assesses the effectiveness of formal collaboratives in stimulating organizational changes to improve chronic illness care (the chronic care model or CCM). Intervention and comparison sites are compared before and after introduction of the CCM. Multiple data sources are used to measure the degree of implementation, patient-level processes and outcomes, and organizational and team factors associated with success.

A conceptual framework for evaluating outpatient electronic prescribing systems based on their functional capabilities.

Objective: Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) may substantially improve health care quality and efficiency, but the available systems are complex and their heterogeneity makes comparing and evaluating them a challenge. The authors aimed to develop a conceptual framework for anticipating the effects of alternative designs for outpatient e-prescribing systems.

Design: Based on a literature review and on telephone interviews with e-prescribing vendors, the authors identified distinct e-prescribing functional capabilities and developed a conceptual framework for evaluating e-prescribing systems' potential effects based on their capabilities.

How to evaluate and improve the quality and credibility of an outcomes database: validation and feedback study on the UK Cardiac Surgery Experience.

Objectives: To assess the quality and completeness of a database of clinical outcomes after cardiac surgery and to determine whether a process of validation, monitoring, and feedback could improve the quality of the database.

Design: Stratified sampling of retrospective data followed by prospective re-sampling of database after intervention of monitoring, validation, and feedback.

Setting: Ten tertiary care cardiac surgery centres in the United Kingdom.

Do patient consent procedures affect participation rates in health services research?

Background: Few studies have examined the effects of Institutional Review Board (IRB) requirements to contact potential research participants.

Objective: To examine the association between requirements to contact potential research subjects and participation rates in a multisite health services research study. RESEARCH DESIGN, SUBJECTS: Prospective observational study of survey participation by 2673 individuals with diabetes and 1974 individuals with congestive heart failure treated at 15 clinical sites in the United States that had implemented a quality improvement intervention.