Article
PERFECT national benchmarking database for the assessment of realisation of the Finnish Current Care Guidelines
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Published: | July 10, 2012 |
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Background: Performance measurement is an essential element of health care system improvement. Evidence adaptation from clinical guidelines into practice is important in clinical management and benchmarking.
Objectives: To determine in which extent the indicators of successful implementation of the Finnish Current Care Guidelines can be captured from the PERFECT national benchmarking database
Methods: Centre for Health and Social Economics in Helsinki has created a egister based national database for follow-up of patients throughout the treatment chain in the PERFECT-project. The database includes eight major diseases or health problems including acute myocardial infarction, hip fracture and stroke. We compared the similarity of the PERFECT indicators with those showing successful implementation of the guideline statements in the three indications. The relevance, validity, and feasibility of the guideline indicators had been evaluated by an expert panel.
Results: We found that in all three indications PERFECT database could be utilized in providing relevant information of how successfully the guideline statements had been realised. In addition the PERFECT indicators showed that during years the prognosis of patients has improved but there are still large differences in care practices and patient outcomes between different areas in Finland. Some indicators showed increasing adherence with the guidelines.
Discussion: Existing register-based indicators from the PERFECT-project provide suitable measures for the evaluation of care practices and may help to develop local practices and implementation of the Current Care guidelines. The databases employing national registers and guideline implementation should be integrated so that adherence to the recommendations could be readily monitored.