How Effective are You? A study on how supervisory organizations in health care are concerned with the effectiveness of supervision Wouter Sparreboom
Background Increasing importance and visibility of supervising the quality of health care systems. Supervisory tasks added and system reforms are taking place Shedding light on international undertakings is more and more important First step made with study of R. Bal* * “Supervising the quality of care in changing healthcare systems – An international comparison” R. Bal et al 2008
“What is the effectiveness of quality inspection “What is the effectiveness of quality inspection? Is it the amount of advice a hospital implements, or is it the internalization of new and better practices on the long run? And how to assess and monitor this? On these issues international comparisons are very valuable and should be carried out to further professionalize the inspection of quality in European health systems.”* *From research agenda section “Supervising the quality of care in changing healthcare systems – An international comparison” R. Bal et al 2008
Research Objective Aim: to obtain initial information on how supervisory organizations in the health care sector concern with effectiveness of supervision Initiate comparative research Provide a basis to share experience Learning material for other organizations
Time Schedule Started beginning of March Collect information until the end of May Analyze data as of June Finish report in the beginning of August Report on EPSO website
Methodology Questionnaire to collect initial data Follow up with telephonic interview Information from EPSO conference Some interviews during conference
The Effect Chain
Preliminary Results Effectiveness is something that all supervisory organizations find important There is an evolution in the way effectiveness of supervision is looked at Predominantly; difficult to link obtained effects to supervision
Preliminary Results The evolution of looking at effectiveness of supervision Output context Self-assessment Interviews with staff Peer-reviews Internal process refinement
Preliminary Results Over time this shifts to include… Outcome context Results on health care caused by supervisory activities Measure evolution of parameters over time Attribute changes to supervisory activities The impact of supervision
Output vs. Outcome Output Outcome Information to make organization more efficient Information how organization is perceived The first essential step before looking at outcome No information about the effectiveness of supervisory activities Outcome Information on the results of supervisory activities Allows for comparison of supervisory methods Hard to find causality
Discussion Is it important to measure outcome? How do we measure outcome? What should an organization do to measure outcome? How to warrant causality when measuring outcome?