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Do Quality Improvement Collaboratives Improve Antimicrobial Prophylaxis in Surgical Patients?
- Stephen K. Liu, MD, MPH;
- Karen Homa, PhD;
- Paul Batalden, MD; and
- Frank Davidoff, MD
- From The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Lebanon, NH 03766, and Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Cambridge, MA 02138.
TO THE EDITOR:
The conclusions stated in the abstract of the article by Kritchevsky and colleagues (1) do not accurately represent the study's findings. In fact, there is substantial reason to conclude that the collaborative was of meaningful clinical value. For example, improvement was statistically significant in 4 of the 6 mean performance measures in the intervention group but in only 3 of 6 measures in the feedback-only (control) group. Moreover, improvement in the mean “all-or-none” measure was 15.6% greater in the intervention group than the control group, which exceeds the 15% difference sought in the power calculation for the primary outcome. Although that particular observed difference was not statistically significant, the upper …
