RACP - Measurement and Review >> Interpretation/review of results

Measurement and Review >> Interpretation/review of results

The constant demands of a busy work environment leave little room for reflection. Consequently, the need for the clinicians involved in your project to have an opportunity to reflect on and discuss the meaning of the data they receive will need to be creatively addressed.

Strategies for giving opportunities to review results include:

using any regular meeting structures in your care system, for example, in-service education sessions, journal clubs, departmental meetings,
creating special project meetings.

Clinicians may vary in their responses to the data, particularly if the results are different from anticipated. Some may question if the data is biased, or whether the indicators used were the right ones? Others may quickly move into problem-solving. Your project will need to manage these different responses.

Variation in the data from best practice needs to be fully explored. For example, has something changed in the care system, or do clinicians need more education about the evidence?

Identifying the reasons for any variation is an important first step in the process of practice improvement.

The clinicians directly involved in providing care will have the greatest knowledge of the care processes and will be able to identify many of the specific solutions to address particular problems. There is much that your core team can do to support them. These are discussed in the section on Intervention.