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 Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
1,685
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.
23 Locations
Nijmegen, Netherlands
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
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
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