RACP - Measurement and Review >> Deciding on the evidence-based measures >> a. Resist the urge to select as many indicators as you can

Measurement and Review >> Deciding on the evidence-based measures

a. Resist the urge to select as many indicators as you can

The lack of evidence-based data on patient care in your practice setting may make large numbers of indicators appealing.

However, the greater the number of indicators used, the more likely it is that there will be practical problems for the project.

For example, clinicians will be less likely to collect the data (if this is the method chosen) when the dataset is too large and it is difficult to provide concise feedback to clinicians from a complex dataset.

"The original proposal for our minimum dataset (MDS) for acute coronary syndromes (ACS) had over 200 data points. After lengthy discussion between our clinical experts over 8 months, it was reduced to 74 points. By the end of the project, there was very strong agreement that the MDS should start much smaller - about 10 to 20 important points - and then expand later if required�Our stroke phase leveraged off the project�s learning from the ACS phase and developed a minimum dataset of 40 points - this is still too many."

Towards A Safer Culture, Final Report

" In our original project, we had 250 data items in our congestive heart failure dataset and 200 in the acute coronary syndrome dataset. In the latest extension of our project�s methods across 9 hospital sites, the number has been reduced for both to less than 50."

Brisbane Cardiac Consortium, Final Report