Data for Improvement and Clinical Excellence (DICE) Program
Start/End Dates: 2008 - 2012
Investigators: Anne Sales (PI), Corinne Schalm, Carole A. Estabrooks, Colleen Maxwell, Sharon Warren, Marian Anderson, Kari Elliot, Vivien Lai, Lili Liu, Suzanne Maisey, Iris Neumann
Funder: CHSRF REISS program&Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR)
Grant Amount: $796, 890
Background: A body of literature on using Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) data for improving quality and safety is emerging. Successes to date suggest that more intensive, tailored, and targeted use of RAI data can improve processes and quality of care in continuing care settings, where continuing care encompasses facility-based long term care (nursing homes) and home care.
Description: Our program takes a systematic approach to assessing current data use and priorities from the perspective of multiple disciplines, building on the use of a well-tested quality improvement method, audit with feedback. Among the intervention methods that have been tested to implement evidence-based practices in healthcare, audit with feedback has received considerable attention. Timely, targeted, relevant feedback, linked to important outcomes of care, has been shown to be moderately effective as a stand-alone intervention to improve care. Currently, there is a provincial mandate for RAI data collection in continuing care throughout Alberta. Considerable resources are expended to collect these data. Our program will facilitate and increase the speed with which these data are used to improve safety and quality of care for the vulnerable populations served by continuing care.
Our principal objectives are:
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To ascertain how RAI data can be used within organizations;
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To look at how the organizational context interacts with use of data;
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To assess the effectiveness of a feedback intervention delivering RAI data to different provider groups within continuing care organizations.