Outcomes research tests evidence-based interventions to see how they impact individuals, groups, and populations. It examines the effects on both patients and healthcare providers. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Accountable Care Organizations, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute all play roles in outcomes research. Outcomes research can help improve patient care by identifying effective interventions and understanding different treatment outcomes. However, outcomes may differ based on patient demographics and reported data could be skewed.
2. What is Outcomes Research
Testing evidence based interventions and analyzing if it has positively or
negatively impacted the individual, group, or population.
Understanding how the intervention has affected both the patient as well as
healthcare providers.
Understanding the decisions and why these decisions were made by the
participant of the research study.
Nursing research outcomes can be care, patient, or performance related
3. Who plays a role is Outcomes Research
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has improvement and healthcare quality among its
goals (Schmidt et. al., 2015, p. 488).
Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) have developed partnerships with healthcare providers and
hospitals to provide quality care (Schmidt et. al., 2015, p. 489).
Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provide reimburses ACO based off of outcomes
of patient (Schmidt et. al., 2015, p. 489).
Besides the patients and healthcare providers, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
(AHRQ)and Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) play a significant role in
outcomes research.
4. Patient Centered Outcomes Research
Institute (PCORI)
An institute that provides quality and relevant information to patients, families,
clinicians, employers, insures, and policymakers to help make better informed
health decisions.
Provided funding to hundreds of studies to compare health care interventions to
learn which intervention works best
Providing funding to improve clinical effectiveness research methods that will
ultimately lead improved patient outcomes
5. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
An agency that invest in to research to understand how to improve and make
healthcare safer.
Create unique materials to train and teach healthcare professionals and
organizations on how to incorporated the best interventions into practice.
Overall this organization responds to issues and creates ways to improve the
healthcare system as well as improve patient outcomes.
6. Positive Impact of outcomes research on Patients and
Healthcare Professionals
Outcomes research encourages researchers to be innovative to create new interventions that are
more effective and improve patient care.
By understanding the outcome of certain interventions, we are able to provide safe and efficient
care.
Outcomes research can test a broad category of outcomes from patient, care, and performance
related outcomes.
Outcomes research can also test short, intermediate, and long term outcomes, Which provides us
with options depending on out treatment plan for the patient and our desired outcome.
7. Possible limitation of outcomes research
In healthcare, we provide care to many different cultures and race, some interventions
that we may choose to implement may impact others differently depending on
demographics and socioeconomics of the patient.
There is a possibility that data can be skewed by researchers or hospitals reporting
untruthful data when it has been collected
The amount of time and money spent to implement and teach these interventions to
healthcare providers and hospital can be quite excessive.
8. References
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: A Profile. Content last reviewed
February 2017. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Rockville, MD.
http://www.ahrq.gov/cpi/about/profile/index.htm
Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Content last reviewed March 2017.
Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Washington, DC.
http://www.pcori.org/about-us/our-story
Schmidt, N. A., & Brown, J. M. (2015). Evidence-based practice for nurses:
Appraisal and application of research (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA : Jones & Barlett
Learning.