Outcome Measures vs. Process Measures
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Outcome Measures vs. Process Measures
Improving the safety and quality of health care is the primary concern of caregivers, the government, and the public; hence calculated efforts are channeled towards the organization and delivery of care. While there are different approaches to improving care, Continuous quality improvement (CQI) stands out as a critical driver to enhancing safety, quality, and healthcare costs. Somebody can take measurements either through the outcome measures or process measures. Outcome measures show the impact of the intervention or health service through the status of the patients, caregivers, and costs (Porter, Larsson, & Lee, 2016). Most outcome measures are in terms of clinical outcomes or financial outcomes and are reported to commercial payers and the government. Some examples of outcome measures include readmission rates, mortality rates, and such.
On the other hand, process measures refer to the steps that caregivers implement in clinical practice, leading to positive or negative metric outcomes (Burton, 2016). For example, we may consider the length of stay, which is an outcome measure. Still, a process measure that precedes the outcome may include assessing the variation in time before the physician ordered discharge and the actual discharge time. One may dig deeper to evaluate factors such as drug dissemination processes, which may affect discharge time and may prove to be an aspect that needs improvement to minimize delay and congestion. Process measures can also be used for public reporting.
Outcome Measures vs. Process Measures
I consider process measures to be much necessary for clinical settings and CQI than outcome measures. Process measures evaluate the evidence-based practice that depicts the health institution’s effort to improve (Burton, 2016). For example, an institution needs to reduce patient falls, which is an outcome measure, and the baseline rate is known. The best method would be to track the implemented step measures such as risk assessments to identify patients at risk, environmental factors, and caregiver factors to identify areas of weakness and implement possible solutions. Process metrics help identify the root cause that helps in developing solutions (Burton, 2016). Process measures help an institution save on costs while improving quality by reducing variations in care delivery. Assessing processes may help identify departments with delays or overspend, and opportunities to standardize such outcomes can be considered. In some situations, outcome measures can be considered the ‘gold standard’ in quality measures, but one may forget that an outcome is as a result of various factors. Process measures help identify the specific factors that lead to a given development; thus can be used in CQI.
References
Burton, T. (2016). Why Process Measures Are Often More Important Than Outcome Measures in Healthcare. Retrieved 27 January 2021, from https://www.healthcatalyst.com/insights/process-vs-outcome-measures-healthcare
Porter, M. E., Larsson, S., & Lee, T. H. (2016). Standardizing patient outcomes measurement. N Engl J Med, 374(6), 504-506.
Outcome Measures vs. Process Measures
Question
Measurement is required to determine the success of your CQI project. What is the difference between outcome and process measures? Which are more important? Why? Support your reasoning with an example.