A survey of Australian clinical registries: can quality of care be measured?
- 25 January 2011
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Internal Medicine Journal
- Vol. 41 (1a), 42-48
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1445-5994.2009.02068.x
Abstract
Background: Clinical quality registries gather and analyse information to monitor and enhance the quality of care received by patients. The aim of the present study was to determine the attributes of Australian clinical registries to identify their capacity to accurately assess quality of care. Methods: A survey was distributed to registry custodians managing multi-site clinical outcome registries. They were asked to self-report on general aspects of registries, including coverage, length of operation, data collection process, data management, quality of data and registry governance structures. Results: A total of 28 registries were identified and all provided responses to the survey. The majority of the registries require modifications to their procedures in order to provide useful and reliable information for quality improvement purposes. Thirteen registries (46%) did not assess or recruited fewer than 80% of the eligible population and 23 (82%) did not formally audit reliability of coding at the clinical level. Five (18%) did not collect the information required for basic risk adjustment of outcome measures. While most registries produced reports for providers and interested parties, the approach to disseminating this information was highly variable. Conclusion: Clinical registries provide the most credible information about quality of care. However, most key registries in Australia require some adaptation of procedures in order to accomplish this task. Funding should be provided to enable registries to make the necessary changes.Keywords
This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Surgical Intensive Care–Infection Registry: A Research Registry With Daily Clinical Support CapabilitiesAmerican Journal of Medical Quality, 2008
- Event-based record linkage in health and aged care services data: a methodological innovationBMC Health Services Research, 2007
- Hospital Quality for Acute Myocardial InfarctionPublished by American Medical Association (AMA) ,2006
- A review of randomized controlled trials comparing the effectiveness of hand held computers with paper methods for data collectionBMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 2006
- A comparison study: paper-based versus web-based data collection and managementApplied Nursing Research, 2005
- Impracticability of Informed Consent in the Registry of the Canadian Stroke NetworkNew England Journal of Medicine, 2004
- Directory of clinical databases: improving and promoting their useQuality and Safety in Health Care, 2003
- Riks-Stroke – A Swedish National Quality Register for Stroke CareCerebrovascular Diseases, 2003
- Defining and Improving Data Quality in Medical Registries: A Literature Review, Case Study, and Generic FrameworkJournal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 2002
- Accuracy of Risk-Adjusted Mortality Rate As a Measure of Hospital Quality of CareMedical Care, 1999