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Assessing the outcomes of total knee replacement
Author(s) -
Bardsley Martin,
Cleary Robert
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of evaluation in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.737
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2753
pISSN - 1356-1294
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2753.1999.00152.x
Subject(s) - audit , context (archaeology) , medicine , health care , outcome (game theory) , physical therapy , business , accounting , paleontology , mathematics , mathematical economics , economics , biology , economic growth
The past few years have seen a growth of interest in outcome measurement in a variety of settings including audit, health care management and commissioning – besides the traditional applications in research work. This paper reports on a study of the outcomes of total knee replacement in an acute hospital where the outcomes were studied as part of an audit process. The outcome measures used included clinical and symptomatic measures as well as generic health status scales. The initial study in one hospital was expanded to include a number of others in the same region and a comparative database of outcomes developed. Examples of the results are shown. The technical measures using knee scores and general health status measure show significant improvement from pre‐operatively to 3 months later. This improvement was maintained up to the 1‐year follow‐up on both measures. Although the information systems for collecting and measuring outcomes has been successful, the ability of such measures to lead to behavioural change has been limited. The problems in using outcome measures are discussed in particular in the context of an audit within hospitals, and for purchasing agencies.