Recent Findings from Boston Children’s Hospital Provides New Insights into Quality of Care (Variation In Hospital Performance Measures From the Turkey Ministry of Health): Health and Medicine – Quality of Care

2021 OCT 12 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Health and Medicine - Quality of Care is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating from Boston, Massachusetts, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “The Turkish healthcare system has seen broad population-based improvements in expanded health insurance coverage and access to healthcare services. Hospital performance in this national system is understudied.”

Funders for this research include Hacettepe University, Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK).

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Boston Children’s Hospital, “We aimed to identify trends in hospital performance over time following implementation of the Health Transformation Program and describe how regional outcomes correlate with regional vital statistics. We examine hospital performance data collected by the PHA from 2013 to 2015. We aim to identify the temporal variation in hospital performance for nearly 30 individual measures and to describe the relationship between hospital-level performance measures and regional vital statistics. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 674 public hospitals in Turkey using baseline data from 2013 and follow-up data from 2014-15 collected by the Turkish Statistical Institution and the Public Hospital Agency. We report demographic and socioeconomic data across 12 geographic regions and analyze 29 hospital-level performance measures across four domains: (i) health services; (ii) administrative services; (iii) financial services and (iv) quality measures. We examine temporal variation, and study correlation between performance measures and regional vital statistics. We fit mixed-effects linear regression models to estimate linear trend over time accounting for within-hospital residual correlation. We prepared our manuscript in accordance with guidelines set by the STROBE statement for cohort studies. During the 3 years of study period, 21 of 29 measures improved and 8 measures worsened. All but three measures demonstrated significant differences across regions of the country. Several measures, including inpatient efficiency, patient satisfaction and audit score, are associated with regional infant mortality and life expectancy. Evidence of temporal improvement in hospital-level performance may suggest some positive changes within the Turkish national healthcare system. Correlation of some measures with regional level health outcomes suggests a quality measurement strategy to monitor performance changes in the future.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Although hospital-level functions have improved performance, the results of our study may help achieve further improvement for the health of the country’s citizens.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Variation In Hospital Performance Measures From the Turkey Ministry of Health. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 2021;33(3). International Journal for Quality in Health Care can be contacted at: Oxford Univ Press, Great Clarendon St, Oxford OX2 6DP, England. (Oxford University Press - http://www.oup.com/; International Journal for Quality in Health Care - intqhc.oxfordjournals.org)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Mehmet Saluvan, Boston Children’s Hospital, Precis Vaccines Program, 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, United States. Additional authors for this research include Al Ozonoff, Carly E. Milliren, Dionne A. Graham, Mecit Can Emre Simsekler, Merve Babacan Akin, Pinar Kocatakan and Mustafa Goren.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzab109. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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