Quality indicators for international benchmarking of mental health care
1 Tufts-New England Medical Center, Center for Quality Assessment & Improvement in Mental Health (CQAIMH), 2 Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA, 3 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Health Policy Unit, Paris, France, 4 Association of Quality in Health, London, UK, 5 National Board of Health and Welfare, Stockholm, Sweden, 6 University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, 7 University of Durham, Durham, UK, 8 University of Melbourne School of Population Health, Program Evaluation Unit, Melbourne, Australia, and 9 The National Indicator Project, Aarhaus, Denmark
Objective. To identify quality measures for international benchmarking of mental health care that assess important processes and outcomes of care, are scientifically sound, and are feasible to construct from preexisting data.
Design. An international expert panel employed a consensus development process to select important, sound, and feasible measures based on a framework that balances these priorities with the additional goal of assessing the breadth of mental health care across key dimensions.
Participants. Six countries and one international organization nominated seven panelists consisting of mental health administrators, clinicians, and services researchers with expertise in quality of care, epidemiology, public health, and public policy.
Measures. Measures with a final median score of at least 7.0 for both importance and soundness, and data availability rated as ‘possible’ or better in at least half of participating countries, were included in the final set. Measures with median scores 
3.0 or data availability rated as ‘unlikely’ were excluded. Measures with intermediate scores were subject to further discussion by the panel, leading to their adoption or rejection on a case-by-case basis.
Results. From an initial set of 134 candidate measures, the panel identified 12 measures that achieved moderate to high scores on desired attributes.
Conclusions. Although limited, the proposed measure set provides a starting point for international benchmarking of mental health care. It addresses known quality problems and achieves some breadth across diverse dimensions of mental health care.
Keywords: benchmarking, consensus development, international, mental health, quality measures
Address reprint requests to Richard C. Hermann, Tufts-New England Medical Center, Center for Quality Assessment & Improvement in Mental Health (CQAIMH), 750 Washington Street, NEMC# 345, Boston, MA, 02111, USA. E-mail: rhermann{at}cqaimh
Accepted for publication June 16, 2006.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  V. Merle, L. Moret, L. Pidhorz, F. Dujardin, F. Gouin, V. Josset, S. Graveleau, J. Petit, F. Riou, P. Lombrail, et al. Does comparison of performance lead to better care? A pilot observational study in patients admitted for hip fracture in three French public hospitals Int. J. Qual. Health Care, October 1, 2009; 21(5): 321 - 329. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|