Just as there are trends in fashion, food, cars and entertainment, such that what
is “in” today may be “out” tomorrow, so there are hot topics in surgery. Currently,
quality improvement is a hot topic in surgery. The educators call it “practice-based
learning”; the clinical epidemiologists call it “evidence-based medicine”; the health
service researchers call it “knowledge transfer” and the quality assurance people
call it “continuous quality improvement” but in essence it is the same: the goal is
to provide the highest quality of care to the individual patient. Furthermore, the
fundamental components are the same: provide care to patients based on the best current
evidence; collect data on relevant outcomes; evaluate performance; provide feedback
and implement changes in response to the audit. All of these components are multifaceted
and each has important issues that need to be identified and dealt with. This is true
for the collection of data where the issues include: are the data reliable? Are the
data valid? How can the data be collected as close to real time as possible and without
incurring huge costs? Is it possible to risk adjust the data?
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References
- Comparison of data extraction from standardized versus traditional narrative operative reports for database related research and quality control.Surgery. 2007; 141: 708-714
- Dictated versus database-generated discharge summaries: a randomized clinical trial.CMAJ. 1999; 160: 319-326
- The Computer Synoptic Oprative Report-a leap forward in the science of surgery.Ann Surg Oncol. 2004; 11: 941-947
- Surgical templates for orthopedic operative reports.Orthopedics. 2002; 25: 639-642
Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
April 20,
2007
Identification
Copyright
© 2007 Mosby, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
