Quality of evidence of studies identifying quality of care indicators for people with serious mental illness
| Study | Description of study | Strength of evidencea |
|---|---|---|
| Parameswaran, Spaeth-Rublee, Pincus23 | 656 measures of quality of mental health care identified in earlier work are rated in importance, validity, and feasibility, using a modified Delphi process | 3 |
| NICE37 | NICE treatment guidelines for bipolar disorder | 4 |
| NICE30 | NICE treatment guidelines for schizophrenia | 4 |
| AHRQ25 | AHRQ provides a database of quality indicators that was used during the grey literature search | 4 |
| Lester, Tritter, Sorohan32 | Focus groups with patients, GPs, and nurses were conducted to explore how to improve care in cases of acute mental health crises | 3 |
| Sweeney, Rose, Clement, et al27 | Structured interviews were conducted with 167 individuals suffering from psychoses to establish a concept of service user-defined continuity of care | 3 |
| Ware, Dickey, Tugenberg, McHorney28 | This study reports on the field testing of an interview-based measure of continuity of care | 3 |
| Cerimele, Chan, Chwastiak, et al 29 | Narrative description of 740 primary care patients with bipolar who participated in an MHIP. Quality of care outcomes were derived from patient disease registry | 3 |
| Pincus, Spaeth-Rublee, Watkins44 | Discussion on the barriers to measuring quality of care in the mental health arena, combined with a short list of potential quality measures | 3 |
| Holden26 | This study audited 16 GPs on their care for 266 patients with schizophrenia and observed that the audit led to improved recording of a range of quality indicators | 3 |
| Swartz, MacGregor31 | The authors of this paper argue that in South Africa the role of mental health nurses has been altered to focus on violence, substance misuse, and HIV/AIDS, and should be refocused on psychiatry care in the primary care setting | 3 |
| Ruud34 | The author summarises the literature on quality of care in mental health services in Norway in 2008–2009 | 3 |
| Highet, McNair, Thompson, et al 45 | Interviews with 49 patients with bipolar to describe experience in primary care in Australia. Eight themes for improvement of the primary care experience are outlined | 3 |
| Lader35 | Expert review of the standards of care in schizophrenia to reduce side effects while achieving best treatment outcomes | 3 |
| Haro, Salvador-Carulla36 | Observational study following 11 000 patients who were on or changing antipsychotic medication to determine the best course of treatment with respect to symptoms, quality of life, social functioning, and other outcomes | 2 |
| Caughey, Kalish Ellett, Wong38 | Development, expert review, and assessment of the evidence base for, and validity of, medication-related indicators of potentially preventable hospitalisations | 3 |
| Busch, Lehman, Goldman, Frank39 | Observational study examining trends in four measures of quality over time in the US | 2 |
| Young, Sullivan, Burnam, Brook40 | Uncontrolled study looking at differences in quality of care as variations from national guidelines | 3 |
| Nayrouz, Ploumaki, Farooq, et al 41 | Evaluation of an integrated care approach between primary care and community care, focused on patients with SMI | 3 |
| McCullagh, Morley, Dodwell33 | This observational study looks at urban versus rural differences in quality of care for psychoses, as well as the difference in quality of care conditional on contacts with secondary care | 3 |
| Rodgers, Black, Stobbart, Foster43 | Audit of quality of care in 822 Scottish patients with schizophrenia | 3 |
| Osborn, Nazareth, Wright, King46 | Randomised trial to evaluate the impact of a nurse-led treatment to improve screening for CVD in the SMI population | 1 |
| Yeomans, Dale, Beedle47 | Evaluation of a computer-based physical health screening template versus NICE guidelines for the SMI population | 3 |
| Mitchell, Delaffon, Lord48 | A systematic review and meta-analysis of screening practices with respect to metabolic risks for patients with psychosis | 1 |
| Roberts, Roalfe, Wilson, Lester49 | A retrospective view of case notes in 22 GP practices to determine whether patients with schizophrenia receive equitable physical health care | 3 |
| Mainz, Hansen, Palshof, Bartels42 | Description of the Danish National Indicator Project, which intends to document and advance quality of care | 3 |
| Druss, Zhao, Cummings, et al 51 | The study compared diabetes performance measures in US Medicaid enrolees with and without mental comorbidity | 2 |
↵a Quality of evidence51 is categorised as: 1. High — Cochrane or systematic review, randomised control trial. 2. Moderate — non-randomised control study or unsystematic review. 3. Low — expert opinion, uncontrolled studies. 4. Not applicable — measure was extracted from grey literature, for example, (non-)government organisations’ documents or databases. AHRQ = Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. CVD = cardiovascular disease. MHIP = mental health integration programme. NICE = National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. SMI = Serious mental illness.