Evaluation Research of a National Accreditation and Improvement Programme for General Practice

July 8, 2013 updated by: Radboud University Medical Center

Effects and Costs of a National Continuous Improvement Programme on Cardiovascular Diseases in Primary Care

Objective: This study aims to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of a national accreditation and improvement programme for general practice, focusing on patients with established cardiovascular diseases.

Design: Cluster randomised trial with a block design. All practices start with the accreditation procedure.Intervention group practices are requested to focus their improvement plans in the first year on cardiovascular disease. Control group practices are requested to focus their improvement plans in the first year on other domains. Measurements at baseline are based on the standard audit in the accreditation procedure. Follow-up measurements are done 12 months after approval of improvement plans.

Participants: Primary care physicians in The Netherlands.

Interventions to be implemented: improvement plans concerning cardiovascular risk management, as described by recently updated national multidisciplinary evidence-based NHG / CBO guidelines, considering patients with established cardiovascular diseases.

Implementation strategy: The national programme for accreditation and improvement of general practice. This procedure consists of a package of activities, including audit, feedback, improvement plans, and follow-up.

Outcome measures: Primary outcomes are percentages of patients with CVD who have acceptable systolic blood pressure and cholesterol levels (quantified according to the indicators in the accreditation)and who use aspirin or alternatives. Secondary measures include clinical and organisational indicators of quality of cardiovascular care, such as percentages of patients with cardiovascular disease whose risk factors were assessed and who received specific medication.

Economic evaluation: Incremental cost effectiveness ratio's are determined of the implementation strategy compared to no implementation. The analysis will take a societal perspective and a time horizon of the observed period as well as a hypothetical 10 years period (using modelling). Uncertainty related to the estimations is examined with sensitivity analyses and bootstrapping. The long term economic evaluation is based on Markov modelling.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

1685

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with established cardiovascular diseases (myocard infarct, angina pectoris, cerebrovascular accident, Transient Ischaemic Attack, peripheral vascular disease, aneurysma aortae)

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: improvement programme CVD
Other: National programme for accreditation and improvement of GP
The national programme for accreditation and improvement of general practice. This procedure consists of a package of activities, including audit, feedback, improvement plans, and follow-up. It is partly based on new theories on quality improvement, including the use of market forces and pressure for accountability. For the purpose of the study, the intervention group will be requested to focus their improvement plans in the first year on cardiovascular diseases. The control group is requested to focus their improvement plans in the first year on other domains and to provide cardiovascular care as usual.
Other: improvement programme other conditions
Other: National programme for accreditation and improvement of GP
The national programme for accreditation and improvement of general practice. This procedure consists of a package of activities, including audit, feedback, improvement plans, and follow-up. It is partly based on new theories on quality improvement, including the use of market forces and pressure for accountability. For the purpose of the study, the intervention group will be requested to focus their improvement plans in the first year on cardiovascular diseases. The control group is requested to focus their improvement plans in the first year on other domains and to provide cardiovascular care as usual.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Percentages of patients with CVD who have acceptable systolic blood pressure and cholesterol levels (quantified according to the indicators in the accreditation)and who use aspirin or alternatives.
Time Frame: dec 2008-feb 2011
dec 2008-feb 2011

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Clinical and organisational indicators of quality of cardiovascular care, such as percentages of patients with cardiovascular disease whose riskfactors were assessed and who received specific medication.
Time Frame: dec 2008-feb 2011
dec 2008-feb 2011

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Radboud University Medical Center

Collaborators

ZonMw: The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Michel Wensing, Dr, IQ Scientific Institute for Quality of HealthCare - UMC St Radboud

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

December 1, 2008

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2012

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 13, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 13, 2008

First Posted (Estimate)

November 14, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

July 9, 2013

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 8, 2013

Last Verified

May 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • PAHVZ
  • 170883001

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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