TY - JOUR T1 - Effectiveness of a physician-oriented feedback intervention on inappropriate hospital stays JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 128 LP - 134 DO - 10.1136/jech.2005.040428 VL - 61 IS - 2 AU - Pedro Antón AU - Salvador Peiró AU - Jesús M Aranaz AU - Rafael Calpena AU - Antonio Compañ AU - Edith Leutscher AU - Vicenta Ruíz Y1 - 2007/02/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/61/2/128.abstract N2 - Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a combined intervention to reduce inappropriate hospital stays. Design: Quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test with a non-equivalent control group. Setting: Three teaching hospitals in the National Health System in Alicante, Spain. Study participants: Intervention group (2 Surgical Units with 1451 hospital stays) and control group (1 Surgical Unit with 1268 hospital stays). Intervention: Structured oral presentation followed by direct feedback to surgeons about their own percentages of inappropriate stays and daily evaluation of appropriateness by the surgeons during their rounds. Main outcome measures: Reduction in the percentage of inappropriate stays identified by the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol during the intervention period compared to the basal period. Results: The intervention group reduced its percentage of inappropriate stays from 14.3% to 7.9% (absolute reduction: –6.40; 95% CI –10.7 to –2.14; relative reduction: 44.8%), while no changes occurred in the control group. The reduction was in the number of inappropriate stays attributable to the patients’ medical management that went from 12.7% to 5.8% (absolute reduction: –6.92; 95% CI –10.90 to –2.92), while no significant changes occurred in inappropriate stays due to other causes. Conclusions: A combined intervention of feedback and physician participation in appropriateness evaluations is effective in reducing the percentage of inappropriate hospital stays, particularly those attributable to conservative medical patterns at discharge. ER -