Background information
There are eleven national quality registers in the field of psychiatry, but compared with registers in many other diagnostic areas, development in the field has been slow and coverage is low. There is thus great potential for more systematic use, for example for knowledge management at strategic level, follow-up at operational level and as a communication tool in the meeting between patient and therapist.
Challenge
Together with the quality registers in psychiatry in two county councils, Sirona conducted development work to improve data quality and increase usability with the aim of developing the activities.
Implementation
Sirona combined both quantitative and qualitative methods in this assignment. As a first step, a quantitative analysis was carried out based on linking quality register data with county council care data. In parallel, semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives of the psychiatric services concerned, the county councils' psychiatric management and a number of quality registers.
In order to anchor the results and insights in the operations, a basis for operational dialogue was established. The work to develop it consisted of preparing example analyses based on the quality registers, and conducting external analyses of quality registers outside psychiatry to identify good examples. This was combined with qualitative conclusions on the implications for practice and on the issues that should be further analyzed. Workshops were held with representatives from the county councils and the organizations to create a common picture of the current situation and to create participation and motivation for change. This generated many new insights and stimulated the organizations themselves to come up with ideas for improvements. Registration in quality registers has traditionally been low and it was a matter of working on a cultural change in order to increase registration.
Outcome
The project resulted in a complete situation analysis and analytical material for the participating counties, which contributed to:
1) New insights into psychiatric quality registers and their use
2) Identification of good examples for a deeper and broader discussion on the direction of psychiatric quality registers
3) Insights into the uses of registers in business development.
Knowledge sharing and dissemination of results took place at SKL's National Quality Register Conference, for example. The effects of the project were a continued focused quality development work.
