Financial Incentives: Only One Piece of the Workplace Wellness Puzzle; Comment on “Corporate Wellness Programs: Implementation Challenges in the Modern American Workplace”

In this commentary, we argue that financial incentives are only one of many key components that employers should consider when designing and implementing a workplace wellness program. Strategies such as social encouragement and providing token rewards may also be effective in improving awareness and engagement. Should employers choose to utilize financial incentives, they should tailor them to the goals for the program as well as the targeted behaviors and health outcomes

The Curse of Wealth – Middle Eastern Countries Need to Address the Rapidly Rising Burden of Diabetes

The energy boom of the last decade has led to rapidly increasing wealth in the Middle East, particularly in the oil and gas-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. This exceptional growth in prosperity has brought with it rapid changes in lifestyles that have resulted in a significant rise in chronic disease. In particular the number of people diagnosed with diabetes has increased dramatically and health system capacity has not kept pace. In this article, we summarize the current literature to illustrate the magnitude of the problem, its causes and its impact on health and point to options how to address it

Quality Indicators for International Benchmarking of Mental Health Care

Objective. To identify quality measures for international benchmarking of mental health care that assess important processes and outcomes of care, are scientifically sound, and are feasible to construct from preexisting data. Design. An international expert panel employed a consensus development process to select important, sound, and feasible measures based on a framework that balances these priorities with the additional goal of assessing the breadth of mental health care across key dimensions. Participants. Six countries and one international organization nominated seven panelists consisting of mental health administrators, clinicians, and services researchers with expertise in quality of care, epidemiology, public health, and public policy. Measures. Measures with a final median score of at least 7.0 for both importance and soundness, and data availability rated as ‘possible’ or better in at least half of participating countries, were included in the final set. Measures with median scores ≤3.0 or data availability rated as ‘unlikely’ were excluded. Measures with intermediate scores were subject to further discussion by the panel, leading to their adoption or rejection on a case-by-case basis. Results. From an initial set of 134 candidate measures, the panel identified 12 measures that achieved moderate to high scores on desired attributes. Conclusions. Although limited, the proposed measure set provides a starting point for international benchmarking of mental health care. It addresses known quality problems and achieves some breadth across diverse dimensions of mental health care

Financial Incentives: Only One Piece of the Workplace Wellness Puzzle Comment on “Corporate Wellness Programs: Implementation Challenges in the Modern American Workplace”

In this commentary, we argue that financial incentives are only one of many key components that employers should consider when designing and implementing a workplace wellness program. Strategies such as social encouragement and providing token rewards may also be effective in improving awareness and engagement. Should employers choose to utilize financial incentives, they should tailor them to the goals for the program as well as the targeted behaviors and health outcome

The curse of wealth – Middle Eastern countries need to address the rapidly rising burden of diabetes

The energy boom of the last decade has led to rapidly increasing wealth in the Middle East, particularly in the oil and gas-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. This exceptional growth in prosperity has brought with it rapid changes in lifestyles that have resulted in a significant rise in chronic disease. In particular the number of people diagnosed with diabetes has increased dramatically and health system capacity has not kept pace. In this article, we summarize the current literature to illustrate the magnitude of the problem, its causes and its impact on health and point to options how to address it

Application of patient safety indicators internationally: a pilot study among seven countries

Objective To explore the potential for international comparison of patient safety as part of the Health Care Quality Indicators project of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) by evaluating patient safety indicators originally published by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Design A retrospective cross-sectional study. Setting Acute care hospitals in the USA, UK, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Canada and Australia in 2004 and 2005/2006. Data sources Routine hospitalization-related administrative data from seven countries were analyzed. Using algorithms adapted to the diagnosis and procedure coding systems in place in each country, authorities in each of the participating countries reported summaries of the distribution of hospital-level and overall (national) rates for each AHRQ Patient Safety Indicator to the OECD project secretariat. Results Each country's vector of national indicator rates and the vector of American patient safety indicators rates published by AHRQ (and re-estimated as part of this study) were highly correlated (0.821-0.966). However, there was substantial systematic variation in rates across countries. Conclusions This pilot study reveals that AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators can be applied to international hospital data. However, the analyses suggest that certain indicators (e.g. ‘birth trauma', ‘complications of anesthesia') may be too unreliable for international comparisons. Data quality varies across countries; undercoding may be a systematic problem in some countries. Efforts at international harmonization of hospital discharge data sets as well as improved accuracy of documentation should facilitate future comparative analyses of routine database

Selecting Indicators for the Quality of Mental Health Care at the Health Systems Level in OECD Countries

This report presents the consensus recommendations of an international expert panel on indicators for mental health care. Using a structured review process, the panel selected a set of 12 indicators to cover the four key areas treatment, continuity of care, coordination of care, and patient outcomes. The report describes the review process and provides a detailed discussion of the scientific soundness and policy importance of the 12 indicators as follows ... Ce rapport présente les recommandations consensuelles d’un groupe d’experts internationaux sur les indicateurs relatifs aux soins de santé mentale. En suivant une méthodologie détaillée, le groupe d’experts a entrepris de sélectionner 12 indicateurs devant couvrir quatre grands domaines : le traitement, la continuité des soins, la coordination et les résultats. Le rapport décrit la méthodologie employée et démontre, arguments l’appui, la viabilité scientifique et l’importance stratégique des 12 indicateurs présentés ci-dessous ...

Selecting Indicators for the Quality of Cardiac Care at the Health Systems Level in OECD Countries

This report presents the consensus recommendations of an international expert panel on indicators for cardiac care. Using a structured review process, the panel set out to select indicators to cover five key areas: primary prevention, secondary prevention of heart disease, acute coronary syndromes, cardiac interventions and congestive heart failure. In the event, no suitable indicators for primary prevention were retained, and this report proposes 17 indicators as follows: The report describes the review process and provides a detailed discussion of the scientific soundness and policy importance of the 17 indicators ... Ce rapport présente les recommandations consensuelles d’un groupe d’experts internationaux sur les indicateurs relatifs aux soins cardiaques. En suivant une méthodologie détaillée, le groupe d’experts a entrepris de sélectionner des indicateurs devant couvrir cinq grands domaines : la prévention primaire, la prévention secondaire des cardiopathies, le syndrome coronarien aigu, la chirurgie cardiaque et l’insuffisance cardiaque congestive. Aucun indicateur satisfaisant pour la prévention primaire n’ayant été retenu, ce rapport propose donc les 17 indicateurs suivants : Le rapport décrit la méthodologie employée et démontre, arguments à l’appui, la viabilité scientifique et l’importance stratégique des 17 indicateurs retenus ...

Selecting Indicators for Patient Safety at the Health Systems Level in OECD Countries

This report presents the consensus recommendations of an international expert panel on indicators for patient safety. Using a structured review process, the panel set out to select indicators to cover the five key areas: areas hospital-acquired infections, sentinel events, operative and postoperative complications, obstetrics, and other care related adverse events... Ce rapport présente les recommandations consensuelles d’un groupe d’experts internationaux sur les indicateurs relatifs à la sécurité des patients. En suivant une méthodologie détaillée, le groupe d’experts a entrepris de sélectionner des indicateurs devant couvrir cinq grands domaines : infections nosocomiales, événements sentinelles, complications opératoires et post-opératoires, obstétrique, autres événements indésirables liés aux soins...