NCT02747121

Brief Summary

External inspections are widely used as means to improve the quality of care. Despite their widespread use, there is limited knowledge about whether and how they affect the quality of care. This study uses inspection with detection and treatment of sepsis in hospitals as a case to evaluate the effect of inspections on the quality of care and to explore how inspections affect the hospitals.

Trial Health

87
On Track

Trial Health Score

Automated assessment based on enrollment pace, timeline, and geographic reach

Enrollment
7,407

participants targeted

Target at P75+ for not_applicable sepsis

Timeline
Completed

Started Apr 2016

Longer than P75 for not_applicable sepsis

Geographic Reach
1 country

1 active site

Status
completed

Health score is calculated from publicly available data and should be used for screening purposes only.

Trial Relationships

Click on a node to explore related trials.

Study Timeline

Key milestones and dates

Study Start

First participant enrolled

April 1, 2016

Completed
10 days until next milestone

First Submitted

Initial submission to the registry

April 11, 2016

Completed
10 days until next milestone

First Posted

Study publicly available on registry

April 21, 2016

Completed
4.6 years until next milestone

Primary Completion

Last participant's last visit for primary outcome

December 1, 2020

Completed
Same day until next milestone

Study Completion

Last participant's last visit for all outcomes

December 1, 2020

Completed
1.3 years until next milestone

Results Posted

Study results publicly available

March 24, 2022

Completed
Last Updated

March 24, 2022

Status Verified

January 1, 2022

Enrollment Period

4.7 years

First QC Date

April 11, 2016

Results QC Date

April 22, 2021

Last Update Submit

January 24, 2022

Conditions

Keywords

External inspections

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

  • Number of Sepsis Patients With 30 Days Mortality

    We will still use 30-day mortality rate as our outcome measure. The new international sepsis definition will over time affect coding practice and we can therefore not use routine data from the National Patient Register to calculate the mortality rate. We will calculate the mortality rate based on the patient population we include in the study. We will compare mortality rates before and after the inspections.

    30 days

Secondary Outcomes (1)

  • Hospital Length of Stay

    Exact number of days for the length of stay was collected from the National Patient Registry. Since the outcome measure is length of stay, the time frame varies between patients. Time frame for observation periode was at least 12 months for each patient.

Study Arms (2)

Control before intervention

OTHER

External inspection of health services. The intervention is external inspection of sepsis detection and treatment. The intervention is delivered on the organizational Level. Patient are not assigned to the intervention. The intervention is rolled out sequentially to 24 hospitals. We collect data at base line, before the inspections and 8 and 14 month after the inspections. The first arm is the Control period before the inspections.

Behavioral: External inspection of health services

Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

External inspection of health services. We compare the effect measures before and after the inspection. The intervention arm is data after the hospitals have received the inspection.

Behavioral: External inspection of health services

Interventions

The intervention is external inspections of acute hospitals addressing early detection and treatment of sepsis. The intervention is delivered on an organizational level. Individuals are not assigned to an intervention. The investigator use data from individuals to assess if the organizational intervention affects care. Therefore the investigator argues that that the study is observational. The inspection will have two components, a system revision and a follow up audit with verification of patient records 8 months later. The inspection can be considered a complex intervention. The study does not intend to evaluate the individual effects of the different components of the inspection, rather the effect of the inspection as a whole.

Control before interventionIntervention

Eligibility Criteria

Age18 Years+
Sexall
Healthy VolunteersNo
Age GroupsAdult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

  • Suspected infection and minimum 2 SIRS criteria. If high leucocytes are one of the two criteria, then 3 SIRS criteria are needed.

You may not qualify if:

  • Patients below the age of 18 years.
  • Patients who do not pass through the emergency room.

Contact the study team to confirm eligibility.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Study Sites (1)

Haukeland hospital

Bergen, Hordaland, 5021, Norway

Location

Related Publications (21)

  • Walshe K, Wallace L, Freeman T, Latham L, Spurgeon P. The external review of quality improvement in health care organizations: a qualitative study. Int J Qual Health Care. 2001 Oct;13(5):367-74. doi: 10.1093/intqhc/13.5.367.

    PMID: 11669564BACKGROUND
  • van Dishoeck AM, Oude Wesselink SF, Lingsma HF, Steyerberg E, Robben PB, Mackenbach JP. [Transparency: can the effect of governmental surveillance be quantified?]. Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2013;157(16):A1676. Dutch.

    PMID: 23594866BACKGROUND
  • Shaw CD, Braithwaite J, Moldovan M, Nicklin W, Grgic I, Fortune T, Whittaker S. Profiling health-care accreditation organizations: an international survey. Int J Qual Health Care. 2013 Jul;25(3):222-31. doi: 10.1093/intqhc/mzt011. Epub 2013 Feb 13.

    PMID: 23411832BACKGROUND
  • Oude Wesselink SF, Lingsma HF, Reulings PG, Wentzel HR, Erasmus V, Robben PB, Mackenbach JP. Does government supervision improve stop-smoking counseling in midwifery practices? Nicotine Tob Res. 2015 May;17(5):572-9. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntu190. Epub 2014 Sep 19.

    PMID: 25239965BACKGROUND
  • Plsek PE, Greenhalgh T. Complexity science: The challenge of complexity in health care. BMJ. 2001 Sep 15;323(7313):625-8. doi: 10.1136/bmj.323.7313.625. No abstract available.

    PMID: 11557716BACKGROUND
  • Miller RR 3rd, Dong L, Nelson NC, Brown SM, Kuttler KG, Probst DR, Allen TL, Clemmer TP; Intermountain Healthcare Intensive Medicine Clinical Program. Multicenter implementation of a severe sepsis and septic shock treatment bundle. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2013 Jul 1;188(1):77-82. doi: 10.1164/rccm.201212-2199OC.

    PMID: 23631750BACKGROUND
  • Levy MM, Rhodes A, Phillips GS, Townsend SR, Schorr CA, Beale R, Osborn T, Lemeshow S, Chiche JD, Artigas A, Dellinger RP. Surviving Sepsis Campaign: association between performance metrics and outcomes in a 7.5-year study. Crit Care Med. 2015 Jan;43(1):3-12. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0000000000000723.

    PMID: 25275252BACKGROUND
  • Levy MM, Dellinger RP, Townsend SR, Linde-Zwirble WT, Marshall JC, Bion J, Schorr C, Artigas A, Ramsay G, Beale R, Parker MM, Gerlach H, Reinhart K, Silva E, Harvey M, Regan S, Angus DC; Surviving Sepsis Campaign. The Surviving Sepsis Campaign: results of an international guideline-based performance improvement program targeting severe sepsis. Crit Care Med. 2010 Feb;38(2):367-74. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0b013e3181cb0cdc.

    PMID: 20035219BACKGROUND
  • Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Quality of Health Care in America. Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2001. Available from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK222274/

    PMID: 25057539BACKGROUND
  • Gatewood MO, Wemple M, Greco S, Kritek PA, Durvasula R. A quality improvement project to improve early sepsis care in the emergency department. BMJ Qual Saf. 2015 Dec;24(12):787-95. doi: 10.1136/bmjqs-2014-003552. Epub 2015 Aug 6.

    PMID: 26251506BACKGROUND
  • Flodgren G, Pomey MP, Taber SA, Eccles MP. Effectiveness of external inspection of compliance with standards in improving healthcare organisation behaviour, healthcare professional behaviour or patient outcomes. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2011 Nov 9;(11):CD008992. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD008992.pub2.

    PMID: 22071861BACKGROUND
  • Flaatten H. Epidemiology of sepsis in Norway in 1999. Crit Care. 2004 Aug;8(4):R180-4. doi: 10.1186/cc2867. Epub 2004 May 14.

    PMID: 15312216BACKGROUND
  • Ferrer R, Artigas A, Levy MM, Blanco J, Gonzalez-Diaz G, Garnacho-Montero J, Ibanez J, Palencia E, Quintana M, de la Torre-Prados MV; Edusepsis Study Group. Improvement in process of care and outcome after a multicenter severe sepsis educational program in Spain. JAMA. 2008 May 21;299(19):2294-303. doi: 10.1001/jama.299.19.2294.

    PMID: 18492971BACKGROUND
  • Campbell M, Fitzpatrick R, Haines A, Kinmonth AL, Sandercock P, Spiegelhalter D, Tyrer P. Framework for design and evaluation of complex interventions to improve health. BMJ. 2000 Sep 16;321(7262):694-6. doi: 10.1136/bmj.321.7262.694. No abstract available.

    PMID: 10987780BACKGROUND
  • Donabedian A. The quality of care. How can it be assessed? JAMA. 1988 Sep 23-30;260(12):1743-8. doi: 10.1001/jama.260.12.1743.

    PMID: 3045356BACKGROUND
  • Brubakk K, Vist GE, Bukholm G, Barach P, Tjomsland O. A systematic review of hospital accreditation: the challenges of measuring complex intervention effects. BMC Health Serv Res. 2015 Jul 23;15:280. doi: 10.1186/s12913-015-0933-x.

    PMID: 26202068BACKGROUND
  • Berwick DM. Crossing the boundary: changing mental models in the service of improvement. Int J Qual Health Care. 1998 Oct;10(5):435-41. doi: 10.1093/intqhc/10.5.435.

    PMID: 9828033BACKGROUND
  • Barochia AV, Cui X, Vitberg D, Suffredini AF, O'Grady NP, Banks SM, Minneci P, Kern SJ, Danner RL, Natanson C, Eichacker PQ. Bundled care for septic shock: an analysis of clinical trials. Crit Care Med. 2010 Feb;38(2):668-78. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0b013e3181cb0ddf.

    PMID: 20029343BACKGROUND
  • Angus DC, Linde-Zwirble WT, Lidicker J, Clermont G, Carcillo J, Pinsky MR. Epidemiology of severe sepsis in the United States: analysis of incidence, outcome, and associated costs of care. Crit Care Med. 2001 Jul;29(7):1303-10. doi: 10.1097/00003246-200107000-00002.

    PMID: 11445675BACKGROUND
  • Husabo G, Nilsen RM, Solligard E, Flaatten HK, Walshe K, Frich JC, Bondevik GT, Braut GS, Helgeland J, Harthug S, Hovlid E. Effects of external inspections on sepsis detection and treatment: a stepped-wedge study with cluster-level randomisation. BMJ Open. 2020 Oct 20;10(10):e037715. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-037715.

  • Hovlid E, Frich JC, Walshe K, Nilsen RM, Flaatten HK, Braut GS, Helgeland J, Teig IL, Harthug S. Effects of external inspection on sepsis detection and treatment: a study protocol for a quasiexperimental study with a stepped-wedge design. BMJ Open. 2017 Sep 5;7(9):e016213. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016213.

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Sepsis

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

InfectionsSystemic Inflammatory Response SyndromeInflammationPathologic ProcessesPathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Results Point of Contact

Title
Dr Einar Hovlid
Organization
Helsetilsynet

Study Officials

  • Jan Fredrik Andresen, MD

    Head of Norwegian Board of Health Supervision

    STUDY CHAIR

Publication Agreements

PI is Sponsor Employee
No
Restrictive Agreement
No

Study Design

Study Type
interventional
Phase
not applicable
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Masking
NONE
Purpose
HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
Intervention Model
CROSSOVER
Model Details: The intervention will be rolled out sequentially during 12 months to 24 hospitals, with six clusters of four geographically close hospitals. We collect data before and after the inspections.
Sponsor Type
OTHER GOV
Responsible Party
SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

First Submitted

April 11, 2016

First Posted

April 21, 2016

Study Start

April 1, 2016

Primary Completion

December 1, 2020

Study Completion

December 1, 2020

Last Updated

March 24, 2022

Results First Posted

March 24, 2022

Record last verified: 2022-01

Data Sharing

IPD Sharing
Will not share

In line with the ethical approval data is not to be shared outside the research group

Locations