Risk assessment and analysis of outcomes
To ensure that patients receive optimal care, and to find ways to improve, we have to measure the therapy delivered and patient outcomes. Increasingly this happens in a public forum. This chapter deals with this complex process and potential pitfalls. To assess care a wide range of information needs to be collected for each patient, and must be as complete and accurate as possible. Analysis needs to take into account different patient characteristics to tease out differences in outcome that might be due to healthcare delivery rather than patient comorbidity. The methods used to display these results are pivotal in interpretation and triggering early warning of potential problems, and are discussed. In this era of transparency and openness, the central role of patients is acknowledged—patient involvement is now central to modern medicine. The benefits and potential undesirable consequences of public reporting of outcomes are also explored in this chapter.