BMJ 2000;321:1428 ( 9 December )

Editorials

Quality improvement reports: a new kind of article

They should allow authors to describe improvement projects so others can learn

Education and debate p 1460

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Today we publish our first quality improvement report (p 1460).1 It shows how a group from Paris managed to improve the management of pain in patients after surgery by switching them early from intravenous to oral acetaminophen. The report uses a structure (box) that we have copied with permission from the journal Quality in Health Care.2 One of the best ways to improve your journal---or anything---is to keep scanning your environment for good ideas and then copy them.

Those who work in quality improvement in health care have a poor record in publishing their articles. This may be because they are too busy to publish or because journals won't accept their submissions. But it might be because reports on improvement projects are hard to write and because the traditional structure of scientific articles (IMRAD: introduction, methods, results, and discussion) is unfriendly to such reports. Structure is . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Quality improvement report: Effect of multifaceted intervention promoting early switch from intravenous to oral acetaminophen for postoperative pain: controlled, prospective, before and after study
Claire Ripouteau, Ornella Conort, Jean Paul Lamas, Guy-Robert Auleley, Georges Hazebroucq, and Pierre Durieux
BMJ 2000 321: 1460-1463. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Thomson, R G, Moss, F M (2008). QIR and SQUIRE: continuum of reporting guidelines for scholarly reports in healthcare improvement. Qual Saf Health Care 17: i10-i12 [Full text]  
  • Stevens, D P (2005). Why new guidelines for reporting improvement research? And why now?. Qual Saf Health Care 14: 314-314 [Full text]  
  • Thomson, R G (2005). Consensus publication guidelines: the next step in the science of quality improvement?. Qual Saf Health Care 14: 317-318 [Full text]  
  • Dietrich, A. J, Oxman, T. E, Williams, J. W Jr, Schulberg, H. C, Bruce, M. L, Lee, P. W, Barry, S., Raue, P. J, Lefever, J. J, Heo, M., Rost, K., Kroenke, K., Gerrity, M., Nutting, P. A (2004). Re-engineering systems for the treatment of depression in primary care: cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ 329: 602- [Abstract] [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

The global village
John Hopkins
bmj.com, 15 Dec 2000 [Full text]
Quality improvement reports: the king's new clothes?
Jonathan D Beard
bmj.com, 9 Jan 2001 [Full text]
Being 'too busy to publish' is not an excuse
Adam Jacobs
bmj.com, 12 Jan 2001 [Full text]



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