In order to interpret the effectiveness of health care activities, it is necessary to measure health status before and after an intervention. From the literature, we can identify outcome measures used in research. Online resources, such as the Cochrane Library and British Medical Journal, use a structured abstract so outcome measures can be readily identified and catalogued. These literature resources strive for relevance by promoting the assessment of healthcare interventions using outcomes that matter to people making choices about health care. Both general and condition-specific measures are used to collect outcomes information.
General measures apply to all systems and are more likely to capture adverse events.
Condition-specific measures are more likely to capture benefits of care but could also capture adverse consequences. Patient-centered outcomes measure function, comfort, and likelihood of survival. Measures that are proxies for the patient include objective clinical data, health care activities, and caregiver activities. From a knowledge base of outcome measures, one can generate prompts for health outcomes information to record on the patient record. Most organizations are able to use some measures to show they provide efficient and effective care.