scholarly journals Quality of care indicators for schizophrenia: determinants of observed variations among Italian Departments of Mental Health. Results from the ETAS DSM study

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Fantini ◽  
G. Tibaldi ◽  
P. Rucci ◽  
D. Gibertoni ◽  
M. Vezzoli ◽  
...  

Aims.The primary aim of this study is to analyse the conformance of usual care patterns for persons with schizophrenia to treatment guidelines in three Italian Departments of Mental Health (DMHs). The secondary aim is to examine possible organisational and structural reasons accounting for variations among DMHs.Methods.Within the framework of the Evaluation of Treatment Appropriateness in Schizophrenia (ETAS) project, 20 consensus quality of care indicators were developed. Ten concerned pharmacological treatment and ten encompassed general care and psychosocial rehabilitation interventions. Indicators were calculated using data from a stratified random sample of 458 patients treated at three DMHs located in North-Eastern, North-Western and Southern Italy. Patients’ data were collected by combining information from medical charts and from a survey carried out by the health care professionals in charge of the patients. Data on the structural and organisational characteristics of the DMHs were retrieved from administrative databases. For each indicator, the number and percentage of appropriate interventions with and without moderators were calculated. Appropriateness was defined as the percentage of eligible patients receiving an intervention conformant with guidelines. Moderators, i.e., reasons justifying a discrepancy between the interventions actually provided and that recommended by guidelines were recorded. Indicators based on a sufficient number of eligible patients were further explored in a statistical analysis to compare the performance of the DMHs.Results.In the overall sample, the percentage of inappropriate interventions ranged from 11.1 to 59.3% for non-pharmacological interventions and from 5.9 to 66.8% for pharmacological interventions. Comparisons among DMHs revealed significant variability in appropriateness for the indicators ‘prevention and monitoring of metabolic effects’, ‘psychiatric visits’, ‘psychosocial rehabilitation’, ‘family involvement’ and ‘work’. After adjusting the patient's gender, age and functioning, only the indicators ‘Prevention and monitoring of metabolic effects’, ‘psychiatric visits’ and ‘work’ continued to differ significantly among DMHs. The percentage of patients receiving appropriate integrated care (at least one appropriate non-pharmacological intervention and one pharmacological intervention) was significantly different among the three DMHs and lower than expected.Conclusions.Our results underscore discrepancies among Italian DMHs in indicators that explore key aspects of care of patients with schizophrenia. The use of quality indicators and improved guideline adherence can address suboptimal clinical outcomes, and has the potential to reduce practice variations and narrow the gap between optimal and routine care.

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (S 01) ◽  
Author(s):  
G Cardoso ◽  
C Pacheco ◽  
J Caldas-de-Almeida

1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria M. Talbott

Complaints of older widows regarding their husbands' health care are investigated in this study. Sixty-four older widows were interviewed several years after their husbands' deaths. The deaths occurred in the early 1980s. Forty-six percent reported problems in the health care their husbands had received. Widows whose husbands had not known in advance that they were going to die were more likely to complain about their husbands' medical care than widows whose husbands had known in advance. Complaints were also related to the frequency of several symptoms of grief. The widows' complaints about their husbands' care focus on quality of care, perceived insensitivity on the part of health care professionals, lack of control over the death, and the organization of services.


Author(s):  
Patricia Nayna Schwerdtle ◽  
Kate Baernighausen ◽  
Sayeda Karim ◽  
Tauheed Syed Raihan ◽  
Samiya Selim ◽  
...  

Background: Climate change influences patterns of human mobility and health outcomes. While much of the climate change and migration discourse is invested in quantitative predictions and debates about whether migration is adaptive or maladaptive, less attention has been paid to the voices of the people moving in the context of climate change with a focus on their health and wellbeing. This qualitative research aims to amplify the voices of migrants themselves to add nuance to dominant migration narratives and to shed light on the real-life challenges migrants face in meeting their health needs in the context of climate change. Methods: We conducted 58 semi-structured in-depth interviews with migrants purposefully selected for having moved from rural Bhola, southern Bangladesh to an urban slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis under the philosophical underpinnings of phenomenology. Coding was conducted using NVivo Pro 12. Findings: We identified two overarching themes in the thematic analysis: Firstly, we identified the theme “A risk exchange: Exchanging climate change and health risks at origin and destination”. Rather than describing a “net positive” or “net negative” outcome in terms of migration in the context of climate change, migrants described an exchange of hazards, exposures, and vulnerabilities at origin with those at destination, which challenged their capacity to adapt. This theme included several sub-themes—income and employment factors, changing food environment, shelter and water sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) conditions, and social capital. The second overarching theme was “A changing health and healthcare environment”. This theme also included several sub-themes—changing physical and mental health status and a changing healthcare environment encompassing quality of care and barriers to accessing healthcare. Migrants described physical and mental health concerns and connected these experiences with their new environment. These two overarching themes were prevalent across the dataset, although each participant experienced and expressed them uniquely. Conclusion: Migrants who move in the context of climate change face a range of diverse health risks at the origin, en route, and at the destination. Migrating individuals, households, and communities undertake a risk exchange when they decide to move, which has diverse positive and negative consequences for their health and wellbeing. Along with changing health determinants is a changing healthcare environment where migrants face different choices, barriers, and quality of care. A more migrant-centric perspective as described in this paper could strengthen migration, climate, and health governance. Policymakers, urban planners, city corporations, and health practitioners should integrate the risk exchange into practice and policies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 237437352199774
Author(s):  
Thomas Key ◽  
Avadhut Kulkarni ◽  
Vikram Kandhari ◽  
Zayd Jawad ◽  
Angela Hughes ◽  
...  

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has necessitated many rapid changes in the provision and delivery of health care in hospital. This study aimed to explore the patient experience of inpatient care during COVID-19 pandemic. An electronic questionnaire was designed and distributed to inpatients treated at a large University Health Board over a 6-week period. It focused on hospital inpatients’ experience of being cared for by health care professionals wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), explored communication, and patients’ perceptions of the quality of care. A total of 704 patients completed the survey. Results demonstrated that patients believe PPE is important to protect the health of both patients and staff and does not negatively impact on their care. In spite of routine use of PPE, patients were still able to identify and communicate with staff. Although visiting restrictions were enforced to limit disease transmission, patients maintained contact with their relatives by using various electronic forms of communication. Overall, patients rated the quality of care they received at 9/10. This single-center study demonstrates a positive patient experience of care at an unprecedented time.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Lynd Phan ◽  
Tyler L Renshaw

Low-income and ethnically diverse youth in the United States have unmet needs for mental health services; however, these same youth are unlikely to be connected with high-quality mental health care. Promoting social-emotional competencies through school-based service delivery is one potential solution for improving the accessibility and quality of care for diverse youth facing mental health disparities. Mindfulness, conceived as a set of practices to cultivate social-emotional competencies, can therefore be useful for improving the accessibility and quality of care for diverse youth facing mental health disparities. Given the growing interest in MBSIs and the need to enhance equity in youth mental health services more generally, we provide guidelines to help practicing clinicians successfully adapt and implement MBSIs with underserved youth. First, we offer recommendations for clinicians to enhance underserved youths’ engagement with MBSIs. Next, we overview implementation approaches that clinicians could use for increasing access to MBIs in school settings. Following, we discuss strategies clinicians might employ when working with teachers to effectively implement MBSIs with underserved youth in their classrooms. Ultimately, we hope the guidelines offered in this paper might help inform better practice—as well as motivate further, better research—that advances equitable mental health care in schools with underserved youth.


2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (05) ◽  
pp. 421-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandros Maragakis ◽  
Ragavan Siddharthan ◽  
Jill RachBeisel ◽  
Cassandra Snipes

Individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) are more likely to experience preventable medical health issues, such as diabetes, hyperlipidemia, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, than the general population. To further compound this issue, these individuals are less likely to seek preventative medical care. These factors result in higher usage of expensive emergency care, lower quality of care, and lower life expectancy. This manuscript presents literature that examines the health disparities this population experiences, and barriers to accessing primary care. Through the identification of these barriers, we recommend that the field of family medicine work in collaboration with the field of mental health to implement ‘reverse’ integrated care (RIC) systems, and provide primary care services in the mental health settings. By embedding primary care practitioners in mental health settings, where individuals with SMI are more likely to present for treatment, this population may receive treatment for somatic care by experts. This not only would improve the quality of care received by patients, but would also remove the burden of managing complex somatic care from providers trained in mental health. The rationale for this RIC system, as well as training and policy reforms, are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Serhal ◽  
Anne Kirvan ◽  
Marcos Sanches ◽  
Allison Crawford

BACKGROUND Telepsychiatry is an increasingly used model of mental health care that connects patients with psychiatrists at a distance via videoconference. Telepsychiatry is an effective clinical intervention that improves access to quality care in regions with limited resources or in clinical situations where in-person care is unavailable. OBJECTIVE This study aims to develop a validated survey tool to measure patient experience and satisfaction with telepsychiatry based on the quality of care domains. This study also seeks to understand which health service outcomes were most strongly correlated with overall satisfaction in the context of telepsychiatry. METHODS The survey created in this study was developed and validated with a panel of subject matter and process experts and was piloted with 274 patients who received clinical consultations through the TeleMental Health Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Factor analysis was used to determine correlations between questions and quality of care domains and was also used to assess model fit. RESULTS The study provides a validated survey to measure patient satisfaction and experience with telepsychiatry across 4 domains: access and timeliness, appropriateness, effectiveness, and safety. Both safety and access and timeliness were found to be statistically significant predictors of satisfaction in our sample. CONCLUSIONS By situating patient satisfaction and experience within this framework, the survey facilitates patient data collection and interpretation through a clinical quality lens.


Author(s):  
Sanjeev Sockalingam ◽  
Anne Kirvan ◽  
Cheryl Pereira ◽  
Thiyake Rajaratnam ◽  
Yasmeenah Elzein ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
James G Abel ◽  
Daniel R Wong ◽  
Carmen H Ng ◽  
Lillian Ding ◽  
Andrew Kmetic

Background: Cardiac Services BC (CSBC) is responsible for planning, coordinating, monitoring, and, in some cases, funding cardiac services across British Columbia (BC) in collaboration with senior administrators and physicians from five regional health authorities. CSBC maintains the BC Cardiac Registry (BCCR), a longitudinal clinical registry of all invasive cardiac procedures performed in BC. For over 10 years, CSBC has used BCCR data to evaluate annually quality of care indicators for isolated coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), isolated valve, and CABG+valve surgeries. Methods: In preparation for each annual review, CSBC meets with an established Planning Committee of representative surgeons. BCCR data is linked to provincial Vital Statistics data, to the national Discharge Abstract Database, and for the last 3 yearly analyses to the provincial Central Transfusion Registry which provides robust data on red blood cell (RBC) transfusion. At the annual review, CSBC meets with surgeons who are included in the analyses to present the indicator data. Results: In the 2012 evaluation, the following quality of care indicators were presented for the 2007-2011 period: 30-day mortality and 30-day stroke; 30-day RBC transfusion; and indicators for evidence-based medications at discharge. Risk-adjusted analyses were prepared for the 30-day mortality and 30-day stroke indicators to provide valid comparisons over time and according to hospital and surgeon. Patient characteristics and pre-procedural factors were included in the risk models. The risk-adjusted models performed well with C-statistics for the 30-day mortality models for isolated CABG, isolated valve, and CABG+valve surgeries of 0.86, 0.89, and 0.81, and for the 30-day stroke models 0.80, 0.83, and 0.74, respectively. Expected rates by hospital and by surgeon were determined from each risk model, and observed to expected (O/E) ratios were used for comparison of hospitals and surgeons. Rates of RBC transfusion varied by hospital, and a large reduction in transfusion rates from 69% (378 of 546) in 2007 to 43% (252 of 589) in 2011 was observed at one site with historically higher rates. Conclusion: Presenting quality of care indicators annually has raised awareness of outcome rates and variations which existed across the province. The annual process of engaging surgeons in the evaluation process and linkage with other administrative databases to obtain outcome data has been associated with a reduction in use of RBC transfusion and instigated further investigations into regional variation in mortality rates. The addition of new indicators and other risk-adjusted analyses in the future may further improve quality of care in cardiac surgery in BC.


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