The SUMAMOS EXCELENCIA Project: Assessment of Implementation of Best Practices in a National Health System

There is a gap between research and clinical practice, leading to variability in decision-making. Clinical audits are an effective strategy for improving implementation of best practices. Quasi-experimental, multicentre, before-and-after. Primary-care and hospital-care units and associated socio-healthcare structures, and the patients attended at both. Implementation of evidence-based recommendations by application of the Getting Research into Practice model (process of improvement by reference to a prior baseline clinical audit. Data will be collected at baseline and, during the first year of follow up, at months (3, 6, 9,12)

Aim: To assess the effectiveness of a model of implementation of evidence-based recommendations, in terms of patient outcomes and healthcare quality. Desing: Quasi-experimental, multicentre, before-and-after. Methods Primary-care and hospital-care units and associated socio-healthcare structures, and the patients attended at both. Intervention: Implementation of evidence-based recommendations by application of the Getting Research into Practice model (process of improvement by reference to a prior baseline clinical audit). Variables: Process and outcome criteria with respect to pain, urinary incontinence and fall prevention. Data will be collected at baseline and, during the first year of follow up, at months (3, 6, 9,12), with data on patients and indicators being drawn from clinical histories and records. Descriptive analysis, and comparison of the effectiveness of the intervention by means of inferential analysis and analysis of trends across follow-up. 95% confidence level. This project is funded by Spanish Strategic Health Action November 2014. Project duration 2015-2017.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Unit-inclusion criteria. The study will cover all SNHS units and associated socio-healthcare structures which voluntarily adhere to the project and undertake to implement recommendations relating to pain, urinary incontinence and prevention falls.

For the purposes of this study, a "unit" is defined as any service, centre or institution that delivers health services to a homogeneous group of patients who share similar characteristics.

Patient-inclusion criteria. The study will include all patients attended at units participating in the study, who meet the following criteria, depending on the recommendations to be implemented at each unit:

* Pain: persons admitted to hospital centres who may potentially suffer from some type of pain. Patients will be classified according to whether they are adults or children (paediatric patients), and according to whether they experience chronic pain, acute postoperative pain, or acute pain due to other causes.
* Incontinence: community-dwelling or institutionalised persons prone to present with urinary incontinence. Patients will be classified according to whether they are 65 years of age or over.
* Falls: persons aged over 65 years who display one or more fall risk factors according to the assessment criteria established by the risk assessment instrument used.

Exclusion Criteria:

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