The quality of care delivered to patients with rheumatoid arthritis living in Ontario.
Published: 2005
Language: eng
Number of pages: 160
Description: We tested the applicability of the Arthritis Foundation's (AF) Quality Indicators (QIs) for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to a retrospective database and identified the challenges of applying indicators to existing data. The RA care provided in Ontario was evaluated using the AF QIs, comprising 27 explicit process measures. An overall quality score for each measure was calculated to assess quality of care (QOC). Chi-square tests were performed to determine if various operational definitions yielded different quality scores. 253 patients with RA were eligible for a total of 683 QIs. Of 27 QIs, we assessed seven; overall adherence was 81.84% (95%CI, 78.62 to 85.07). Similar quality scores were ascertained when different operational definitions were employed for a QI. Applying QIs required numerous adaptations, assumptions and definitions. To fully apply the criteria and assess QOC, data collection material that collects data for quality assessment or use of multiple data sources may be necessary.
Notes: Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 44-02, page: 0811.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

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