Improving Quality of Care for Rheumatoid Arthritis
Scientific Study Title:
Developing a patient-centered balanced scorecard approach for rheumatoid arthritis.
Study Start Date:
June 2017
End Date:
2020
Why Do This Research?
Currently, the quality of care for patients with inflammatory arthritis (IA) is not routinely monitored in Canada. As a result, there may be variations in care that could lead to poorer patient outcomes. Inflammatory arthritis (IA) conditions cause joint pain, swelling, and deformity leading to disability. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common type of IA in adults.
One approach to monitoring and improving the quality of care provided to patients is the implementation of a balanced scorecard. Like a report card, a balanced scorecard is a structured approach to improving efficiency and performance that represents viewpoints from multiple stakeholder perspectives. In this case, the stakeholders include people living with arthritis, healthcare providers, healthcare managers and policy makers. A key part of this approach is that performance data is reported back to clinics and providers so they work on improving things where performance was not optimal. This feedback is critical, as we can’t improve what we don’t measure.
What Will Be Done?
Phase 1: Through a series of focus groups, we will develop the vision for the balanced scorecard by listening to input from people living with arthritis, physicians, allied health providers, healthcare managers and policy-makers.
Phase 2: We will bring together a group of experts in performance measurement to finalize the measures that will be included in the balanced scorecard.
Phase 3: Once an electronic version has been built, we will implement the balanced scorecard in Alberta to test that it is acceptable and feasible for all stakeholders.
Who Is Involved?
Our team of researchers, physicians, and patients have been actively developing performance measures for RA in Canada for several years. The Balanced Scorecard project is leveraging this work as a way to bring quality measurement, and reporting, into the clinic setting in a way that has been proven successful in the business world for more than 20 years.
How do people get involved?
Recruitment for this study has concluded
Research Team
Co-Principal Investigators:
Claire Barber, MD, PhD, FRCPC, Research Scientist, Rheumatology, Arthritis Research Canada, (University of Calgary)
Diane Lacaille, MDCM, MHSc, FRCPC, Scientific Director, Arthritis Research Canada (University of British Columbia)
Co-Investigators:
Cheryl Barnabe, MD, MSc, FRCPC, Senior Scientist, Rheumatology, Arthritis Research Canada (University of Calgary)
Glen Hazlewood, MD, PhD, FRCPC, Research Scientist, Rheumatology, Arthritis Research Canada (University of Calgary)
J. Homik,
Linda Li, BSc(PT), MSc, PhD, FCAHS, Senior Scientist, Implementation Science, Arthritis Research Canada (University of British Columbia)
P. MacMullan,
Deborah A. Marshall, PhD, Senior Scientist, Health Services Research and Health Economics, Arthritis Research Canada (University of British Columbia)
D. Mosher,
J.Rankin,
K. Then.
Collaborators:
Kelly English and K Tsui from the Arthritis Patient Advisory Board of Arthritis Research Canada
Research Staff:
V. Bohm, A. Brose, N. Sandhu, M. Stevenson
Funding Agency:
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
