Measuring outcomes of care in an ambulatory primary care population

Abstract

This study developed a practical method for determining the functional outcome status of patients in an ambulatory setting. Health status of 1,840 primary care patients in an ambulatory setting. Health status of 1,840 primary care patients was compared at three points in time: patient's usual status, status at the initial visit, and status at time of telephone follow-up. Follow-up status was also compared with the physician's expectation, which was estimated at the time of the initial visit. Of the patients, 62% showed improvement, 31% remained at the same level, and 7% deteriorated from the time of their initial clinic visit. Physicians tended to overestimate either the speed or degree with which patients return to their usual functional status; 32% of the patients studied reported themselves as being less well than usual at the time of follow-up.

Some Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Nurse Practitioner Research

“…Some studies have attempted such measures, using the concept of "functional level" (Kane, Woolley, Gardner, Snell, Leight, & Castle, 1976;Kane, Gardner, Wright, Woolley, Snell, Sundwall, & Castle, 1978). Such an approach is promising as long as functional level is not defined entirely by the index condition or by the chief complaint for any episode of care.…”