How can reporting be improved?

The successful spread and adoption of improvements across multiple settings depends on full and accurate descriptions of quality improvement (QI) interventions. Poor reporting frustrates improvement in healthcare systems because it makes it hard to determine the components and mechanisms of the intervention under study and threatens the ability to replicate in other settings.1,2

Welcome recent developments have included revised SQUIRE guidance on what should be included in QI reports3 and the TIDieR guidance4 on what should be included in intervention descriptions. Yet reporting of QI interventions continues to be sub-optimal.

A qualitative study is being carried out at the University of Leicester to examine the reasons why reporting in QI has been sub-optimal in the surgical literature. Emma Jones (under the supervision of Professors Mary Dixon-Woods and Graham Martin) will interview a variety of stakeholders to explore their views on what is most difficult about describing QI interventions and what should be done to improve this.  

Emma would like to hear from people who:

• Write up quality improvement projects for publication in the academic literature

• Have an editorial role in journals that publish quality improvement reports

• Use quality improvement reports to guide changes in care

If you might be interested in taking part in a short telephone interview about improving the reporting of QI, please let her know.

Contact Emma Jones:

University of Leicester, Department of Health Sciences, UK
e: elj20@le.ac.uk t: +44 116 252 3648 Twitter: @emmajonesPhysio

You can also register your interest using the on-line registration form at the study website: www.le.ac.uk/qi-project-emma-jones

 

1.           Øvretveit J, Leviton L, Parry G. Increasing the generalisability of improvement research with an improvement replication programme. BMJ Qual Saf. 2011;20(Suppl 1):i87–91.

2.           Schulz, R; Czaja, S; McKay, J; Ory, M; Belle S. NIH Public AccessIntervention Taxonomy (ITAX): Describing Essential Features of Interventions (HMC). Am J Heal Behav. 2010;34(6):811–21.

3.           Ogrinc G, Davies L, Goodman D, Batalden P, Davidoff F, Stevens D. SQUIRE 2.0 ( Standards for QUality Improvement Reporting Excellence)?: revised publication guidelines from a detailed consensus process: Table 1. BMJ Qual Saf [Internet]. 2015;0(September):bmjqs – 2015–004411. Available from: http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/bmjqs-2015-004411

4.           Hoffmann TC, Glasziou PP, Barbour V, Macdonald H. Better reporting of interventions?: template for intervention description and replication ( TIDieR ) checklist and guide. BMJ. 2014;1687(March):1–13.