A Standardized Method for the Evaluation of Adherence to Practice Guidelines

Stephanie Thomas

Department of Economics Working Papers from McMaster University

Abstract: Practice guidelines are widely used in medical settings as a means of improving efficiency and quality of care by aligning service provision with evidence of what is effective. The objective of this work is to propose a methodology for the effective evaluation of the match of clinical practice data with a practice guideline. The proposed methodology uses a combination of existing analytical techniques which minimize the need for the analyst to specify a functional form for the process generating the clinical data. The methodology is illustrated in an application to a set of field data on the supplemental oxygen administration decisions of volunteer medical first responders. The result is a methodology for evaluation of guideline adherence which leverages existing patient care records and is generalizable across clinical contexts. In addition, the results are visually intuitive, supporting communication across diverse audiences.

Keywords: adherence to guidelines; health care utilization; performance evaluation; medical first responders (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C12 C18 C52 I1 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 58 pages
Date: 2016-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff and nep-hea
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2016-14

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